The development of a preliminary rock reef fish multimetric index for assessing thermal and urban impacts in a tropical bay.
We developed a multimetric index for assessing ecological conditions in rocky reefs areas to evaluate thermal and urban influences on fish community. Eight metrics were selected to assess thermal influence: (1) total number of species; (2) number of water column species; (3) number of transient species; (4) density of individuals with low resilience; (5) density of omnivores; (6) density of carnivores; (7) number of cryptic species; (8) density of herbivores. For urban influence, six metrics were selected: (1) total density; (2) ratio between the number of rare species and the total number of species; (3) density of individuals with heavy fishing pressure; (4) number of resident species; (5) number of cryptic species; (6) density of herbivores. This preliminary index succeed in discriminating control/impacted sites and proved to be an important tool to assess impacts that alter fish community and have potential to be used in tropical rock reef coastal areas.
Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, Km7, CEP 23890-000, Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tatiana Pires
TP
Teixeira-Neves
Departamento de Ciências do Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Campus Três Rios, RJ, Brazil.
Leonardo Mitrano
LM
Neves
Laboratório de Ecologia de Peixes, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465, Km7, CEP 23890-000, Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address: gerson@ufrrj.br.
Francisco Gerson
FG
Araújo
D000818:Animals; D061006:Bays / Q000737:chemistry; D057894:Coral Reefs; D004463:Ecology; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005399:Fishes / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology; D060434:Herbivory; D011156:Population Density
Environmental quality assessment; Fish-based metrics; Thermal influence; Urban influence