Fluvial networks as landscape connectors: does the riparian connection quality influence patterns on stream fish diversity?

Abstract

The agribusiness expansion is a primary driver of deforestation, actuating directly on habitat loss and fragmentation, imperiling the freshwater fish diversity in Neotropical region. Identify and comprehend the mechanisms by which the deforestation affects the biological communities is extremely important to elaborate conservation plans and strategies to reduce the biodiversity loss in a regional perspective. This project intends to understand how the landscape dynamics influence the stream fish assemblage structuring, driven by three questions: (1) distinct deforestation processes affect the connectivity and, for consequence, the diversity, physical habitat integrity and stream fish assemblage quality?; (2) the functional connectivity among sampled sites and the forest patches related to the riparian corridors are determining a higher taxonomic and functional diversity for making the matrix more permeable?; and (3) what scenarios/strategies of riparian corridor restoration could be proposed looking for the biodiversity conservation? We expect contribute to a broad comprehension of the effects of deforestation over the stream fish communities, and contribute to the construction of conservation plans, which encompass both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. (AU)