title: Fish fauna as an indicator of environmental quality in an urbanised region of the Amazon estuary.
abstract: This study describes the biological importance of Guajará Bay (Belém, Pará, Brazil) for fish fauna and presents a diagnosis of water quality in the main channel and creeks, using the icthyofauna as an ecological indicator. A total of 567 individuals from 40 species were identified. About 58% of these use Guajará Bay as a nursery ground, 49 and 81% use the bay as a breeding and feeding ground, respectively. There were no significant differences between environments as measured by the diversity index; however, fish relative abundance (catch per unit of effort) was greater in the creeks than in the main channel. A significant difference was detected in the fish fauna inhabiting the main channel compared with the creeks. In the main channel, icthyofauna significantly differed during December relative to other months.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Geociência, Universidade Federal do Pará, Avenida Augusto Corrêa, S/N, Guamá, Belém/PA, Brazil. vianaap@yahoo.com.br
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lucena Frédou
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frédou
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: A O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Bordalo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D001938:Brazil; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005399:Fishes; D012621:Seasons; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014867:Water