Environmental integrity of the Jurumirim Reservoir (Upper Paranapanema River) based on the fish fauna, parasite supracommunity, feeding and migratory behavior of fishes

Abstract

Since the prime of humanity, water bodies have many benefits for society. However, the population growth, the acceleration of the economy and the consequent enhancement of industrial and agricultural demand increased the multiple uses of water, resulting in impacts of various magnitudes. It require different types of qualitative and quantitative evaluation and also long-term continuous monitoring. The need to safeguard water resources should be consolidated in Brazilian society, and refined tools for assessing the quality of the ecosystems are constantly being developed. The use of fish as indicators of environmental integrity with the aim monitoring of water bodies is an applied approach, since fish are very important biological and socioeconomic, justifying their use in biological monitoring programs. The environmental quality assessment by the index of biotic integrity (IBI) has emerged as an important methodology for measuring human impacts on river basins, including attributes of the biota that vary in levels of individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems. The IBI is used in large-scale biomonitoring programs of streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs in several countries, but its use in aquatic ecosystems in Brazil is still incipient, especially in reservoirs. The aim of this work is to evaluate the environmental integrity of the watershed of the reservoir Jurumirim, High Paranapanema, São Paulo, that is under various human activities. Information on stocks and fish assemblages (species abundance, the supra-community of parasites, feeding strategies, population biology and reproductive and migratory behavior) will be used as tools, with the aim of conserving fisheries resources and the multiple uses (water supply, recreation and aquaculture) of this important reservoir. (AU)