Multispecies Fisheries in the Lower Amazon River and Its Relationship with the Regional and Global Climate Variability.
This paper aims to describe the spatial-temporal variability in catch of the main fishery resources of the Amazon River and floodplain lakes of the Lower Amazon, as well as relating the Catch per Unit of Effort with anomalies of some of the Amazon River, atmosphere and Atlantic Ocean system variables, determining the influence of the environment on the Amazonian fishery resources. Finfish landings data from the towns and villages of the Lower Amazon for the fisheries of three sites (Óbidos, Santarém and Monte Alegre), were obtained for the period between January 1993 and December 2004. Analysis of variance, detrended correspondence analysis, redundancy analysis and multiple regression techniques were used for the statistical analysis of the distinct time series. Fisheries production in the Lower Amazon presents differences between the Amazon River and the floodplain lakes. Production in the Amazon River is approximately half of the one of the floodplain lakes. This variability occurs both along the Lower Amazon River region (longitudinal gradient) and laterally (latitudinal gradient) for every fishing ground studied here. The distinct environmental variables alone or in association act differently on the fishery stocks and the success of catches in each fishery group studied here. Important variables are the flooding events; the soil the sea surface temperatures; the humidity; the wind and the occurence of El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. Fishery productivity presents a large difference in quantity and distribution patterns between the river and floodplain lakes. This variability occurs in the region of the Lower Amazon as well as laterally for each fishery group studied, being dependent on the ecological characteristics and life strategies of each fish group considered here.
Laboratory of Fisheries Biology and Management of Aquatic Resources, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Walter Hugo Diaz
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9840-1237
WH
Pinaya
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid, Spain.
Francisco Javier
FJ
Lobon-Cervia
Department of Applied Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
Pablo
P
Pita
Laboratory of Meteorology and Satellite Oceanography, Southern Regional Center for Space Research, National Institute for Space Research, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Ronald
R
Buss de Souza
Grupo de Recursos Marinos y Pesquerías, Universidad de A Coruña, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain.
Juan
J
Freire
Laboratory of Fisheries Biology and Management of Aquatic Resources, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Victoria Judith
VJ
Isaac
D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D057231:Climate Change; D017753:Ecosystem; D059000:El Nino-Southern Oscillation; D005398:Fisheries; D005399:Fishes / Q000254:growth & development*; D055868:Floods; D045483:Rivers; D013696:Temperature