CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 85Fish biology, ecology, and behaviorFish Ecology and Management StudiesEcology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

Floodplain land cover affects biomass distribution of fish functional diversity in the Amazon River

Open access
Arantes, Caroline C., Winemiller, Kirk O., Asher, Alex, Castello, Leandro, Hess, Laura L., Petrere, Miguel, Freitas, Carlos E. C.·2019·Scientific Reports
DOI 10.1038/s41598-019-52243-0PMC PMC6853970
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Land-cover change often shifts the distribution of biomass in animal communities. However, the effects of land-cover changes on functional diversity remain poorly understood for many organisms and ecosystems, particularly, for floodplains. We hypothesize that the biomass distribution of fish functional diversity in floodplains is associated with land cover, which would imply that fish traits affect behavioral and/or demographic responses to gradients of land cover. Using data from surveys of 462 habitats covering a range of land-cover conditions in the Amazon River floodplain, we fitted statistical models to explain landscape-scale variation in functional diversity and biomass of all fish species as well as subsets of species possessing different functional traits. Forest cover was positively associated with fish biomass and the strength of this relationship varied according to functional groups defined by life history, trophic, migration, and swimming-performance/microhabitat-use traits. Forty-two percent of the functional groups, including those inferred to have enhanced feeding opportunities, growth, and/or reproductive success within forested habitats, had greater biomass where forest cover was greater. Conversely, the biomass of other functional groups, including habitat generalists and those that directly exploit autochthonous food resources, did not vary significantly in relation to forest cover. The niche space occupied by local assemblages (functional richness) and dispersion in trait abundances (functional dispersion) tended to increase with forest cover. Our study supports the expectation that deforestation in the Amazon River floodplain affects not only fish biomass but also functional diversity, with some functional groups being particularly vulnerable.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41598-019-52243-0

Cites

4 of 4 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Observed species-specific and community-wide thresholds in relation to forest cover were consistent with the view that floodplain forest cover influences the structure of fish assemblages through environmental filtering in the Amazon.

    “Overall, observed species‐specific and community‐wide thresholds in relation to forest cover were consistent with the view that floodplain forest cover influences the structure of fish assemblages through environmental filtering in the Amazon (Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019; Freitas et al., 2018; Montag et al., 2019).”

    From Threshold responses of floating meadow fish communities to floodplain forest cover in the lower Amazon River (2025) · cites this paper as Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019

    The Discussion says that differing responses of fish functional groups to forest cover are consistent with trait-mediated environmental filtering, and that forest loss may filter out certain species and traits. The Results report associations between forest cover and total fish biomass and several functional groups, but our copy does not report species-specific or community-wide thresholds in forest cover; its Methods describe models using linear predictors. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Prior research shows that low forest cover in the Amazon floodplain is generally associated with low abundance of large migratory, periodic strategist fishes.

    “In contrast, prior research shows that low forest cover in the Amazon floodplain is generally associated with low abundance of large migratory, periodic strategist fishes (Arantes et al., 2018; Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019; Castello et al., 2017; Freitas et al., 2018; Pereira et al., 2023).”

    From Threshold responses of floating meadow fish communities to floodplain forest cover in the lower Amazon River (2025) · cites this paper as Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019

    The Results report significantly greater biomass of regional migrators where forest cover was higher. They also report a positive trend for periodic strategists that mature at large size, but it was not statistically significant (p > 0.09). The paper measures biomass rather than abundance, so it does not establish the claimed general association for large migratory, periodic-strategist fishes. (LLM, conf=0.89)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • This pattern was observed among several cichlid species, likely owing to their equilibrium life-history strategies that involve nesting and brood guarding near submerged structures.

    “This pattern was observed among several cichlid species, likely owing to their equilibrium life‐history strategies that involve nesting and brood guarding near submerged structures (Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019; Carvalho De Lima & Araujo‐Lima, 2004).”

    From Threshold responses of floating meadow fish communities to floodplain forest cover in the lower Amazon River (2025) · cites this paper as Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019

    The Discussion (page unavailable) describes cichlids as equilibrium strategists with bi-parental brood guarding and suggests that structurally complex flooded forests may improve offspring survival. It does not say that they nest near submerged structures or report the pattern for several individual cichlid species; the Results report associations for functional groups instead. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The prevalence of juveniles of periodic and migratory groups in low forest cover areas contrasts with earlier studies showing their adult stages were positively linked to forest cover in the lower Amazon.

    “The prevalence of juveniles of these groups in low forest cover areas contrasts with earlier studies showing their adult stages were positively linked to forest cover in the lower Amazon (Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019).”

    From Threshold responses of floating meadow fish communities to floodplain forest cover in the lower Amazon River (2025) · cites this paper as Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019

    The Results (page not provided) report that regional migrators had greater biomass where forest cover was higher in the lower Amazon, while periodic strategists showed only a non-significant positive trend. The paper does not establish that these relationships specifically concern adult stages; the cited finding is about biomass of functional groups, not an adult–juvenile comparison. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Forest cover is positively associated with fish biomass and fisheries yield in the Amazon River floodplain.

    “Forest cover is positively associated with fish biomass and fisheries yield in the Amazon River floodplain”

    From Threshold responses of floating meadow fish communities to floodplain forest cover in the lower Amazon River (2025) · cites this paper as Arantes, Winemiller, Asher, et al., 2019

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 62

  1. [1]Tockner K Stanford JA Riverine flood plains: present state and future trends Environmental Conservation 2002 29 308 330 10.1017/S037689290200022X · DOI
  2. [2]Smokorowski K Pratt T Effect of a change in physical structure and cover on fish and fish habitat in freshwater ecosystems-a review and meta-analysis Environmental Reviews 2007 15 15 41 10.1139/a06-007 · DOI
  3. [4]Flecker AS Ecosystem engineering by a dominant detritivore in a diverse tropical stream Ecology 1996 77 1845 1854 10.2307/2265788 · DOI
  4. [5]Winemiller KO Pulsing hydrology determines top-down control of basal resources in a tropical river-floodplain ecosystem Ecological Monographs 2014 84 621 635 10.1890/13-1822.1 · DOI
  5. [6]Correa SB Overfishing disrupts an ancient mutualism between frugivorous fishes and plants in Neotropical wetlands Biological Conservation 2015 191 159 167 10.1016/j.biocon.2015.06.019 · DOI · Paper page
  6. [8]Arantes CC Relationships between forest cover and fish diversity in the Amazon River floodplain Journal of Applied Ecology 2018 55 386 395 10.1111/1365-2664.12967 · DOI
  7. [9]Mouillot D Graham NAJ Villéger S Mason NWH Bellwood DR A functional approach reveals community responses to disturbances Trends Ecol. Evol. (Amst.) 2013 28 167 77 10.1016/j.tree.2012.10.004 23141923 · DOI · Paper page
  8. [11]Goulding, M. The fishes and the forest: explorations in Amazonian natural history. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: Univ of California Press, 1980).
  9. [12]Tockner K Malard F Ward J An extension of the flood pulse concept Hydrological processes 2000 14 2861 2883 10.1002/1099-1085(200011/12)14:16/17<2861::AID-HYP124>3.0.CO;2-F · DOI
  10. [13]Crampton WG Ecology and life history of an Amazon floodplain cichlid: the discus fish Symphysodon (Perciformes: Cichlidae) Neotropical Ichthyology 2008 6 599 612 10.1590/S1679-62252008000400008 · DOI
  11. [14]Allan J. David Landscapes and Riverscapes: The Influence of Land Use on Stream Ecosystems Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 2004 35 1 257 284 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.35.120202.110122 · DOI · Paper page
  12. [15]Carvalho, L. N., Zuanon, J. & Sazima, I. Natural history of Amazon fishes. Tropical Biology and Conservation Management. Oxford: Case studies, Eolss Publishers Co. Ltd 113–144 (2009).
  13. [16]Laliberté E Land-use intensification reduces functional redundancy and response diversity in plant communities Ecology letters 2010 13 76 86 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01403.x 19917052 · DOI
  14. [17]Allan E Land use intensification alters ecosystem multifunctionality via loss of biodiversity and changes to functional composition Ecology letters 2015 18 834 843 10.1111/ele.12469 26096863 PMC4744976 · DOI
  15. [19]Reich P The evolution of plant functional variation: traits, spectra, and strategies International Journal of Plant Sciences 2003 164 S143 S164 10.1086/374368 · DOI
  16. [20]Teresa FB Casatti L Trait-based metrics as bioindicators: Responses of stream fish assemblages to a gradient of environmental degradation Ecological Indicators 2017 75 249 258 10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.12.041 · DOI
  17. [21]Brejão GL Hoeinghaus DJ Pérez-Mayorga MA Ferraz SF Casatti L Threshold responses of Amazonian stream fishes to timing and extent of deforestation Conservation biology 2018 32 860 871 10.1111/cobi.13061 29210104 · DOI · Paper page
  18. [22]Leitão RP Disentangling the pathways of land use impacts on the functional structure of fish assemblages in Amazon streams Ecography 2018 41 219 232 10.1111/ecog.02845 29910537 PMC5998685 · DOI
  19. [23]Castello L Fishery yields vary with land cover on the Amazon River floodplain Fish and fisheries 2018 19 431 440 10.1111/faf.12261 · DOI · Paper page
  20. [24]Lobón-Cerviá J Hess LL Melack JM Araujo-Lima CA The importance of forest cover for fish richness and abundance on the Amazon floodplain Hydrobiologia 2015 750 245 255 10.1007/s10750-014-2040-0 · DOI
  21. [25]Villéger S Mason NW Mouillot D New multidimensional functional diversity indices for a multifaceted framework in functional ecology Ecology 2008 89 2290 2301 10.1890/07-1206.1 18724739 · DOI
  22. [26]Mason NW de Bello F Mouillot D Pavoine S Dray S A guide for using functional diversity indices to reveal changes in assembly processes along ecological gradients Journal of Vegetation Science 2013 24 794 806 10.1111/jvs.12013 · DOI
  23. [27]Lindenmayer D Richness is not all: how changes in avian functional diversity reflect major landscape modification caused by pine plantations Diversity and Distributions 2015 21 836 847 10.1111/ddi.12328 · DOI
  24. [30]Lujan NK German DP Winemiller KO Do wood-grazing fishes partition their niche? morphological and isotopic evidence for trophic segregation in Neotropical Loricariidae Functional Ecology 2011 25 1327 1338 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01883.x · DOI
  25. [31]Benedito-Cecilio E Araujo-Lima C Variation in the carbon isotope composition of Semaprochilodus insignis, a detritivorous fish associated with oligotrophic and eutrophic Amazonian rivers Journal of Fish Biology 2002 60 1603 1607 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2002.tb02453.x · DOI
  26. [33]Affonso A Barbosa C Novo E Water quality changes in floodplain lakes due to the Amazon River flood pulse: Lago Grande de Curuai (Pará) Brazilian Journal of Biology 2011 71 601 610 10.1590/S1519-69842011000400004 21881783 · DOI
  27. [34]Winemiller KO Fitzgerald DB Bower LM Pianka ER Functional traits, convergent evolution, and periodic tables of niches Ecology Letters 2015 18 737 751 10.1111/ele.12462 26096695 PMC4744997 · DOI
  28. [36]Power ME Depth distributions of armored catfish: predator-induced resource avoidance? Ecology 1984 65 523 528 10.2307/1941414 · DOI
  29. [37]McIntyre PB Fish distributions and nutrient cycling in streams: can fish create biogeochemical hotspots Ecology 2008 89 2335 2346 10.1890/07-1552.1 18724743 · DOI
  30. [38]Castello L Isaac VJ Thapa R Flood pulse effects on multispecies fishery yields in the Lower Amazon Royal Society open science 2015 2 150299 10.1098/rsos.150299 26715994 PMC4680609 · DOI
  31. [39]Isaac VJ Castello L Santos PRB Ruffino ML Seasonal and interannual dynamics of river-floodplain multispecies fisheries in relation to flood pulses in the Lower Amazon Fisheries Research 2016 183 352 359 10.1016/j.fishres.2016.06.017 · DOI
  32. [40]Fernandes C Lateral migration of fishes in Amazon floodplains Ecology of freshwater fish 1997 6 36 44 10.1111/j.1600-0633.1997.tb00140.x · DOI
  33. [41]Castello L Lateral migration of Arapaima gigas in floodplains of the Amazon. Ecology of Freshwater Fish 2008 17 38 46 10.1111/j.1600-0633.2007.00255.x · DOI
  34. [42]Arantes CC Castello L Cetra M Schilling A Environmental influences on the distribution of arapaima in Amazon floodplains Environmental Biology of Fishes 2013 96 1257 1267 10.1007/s10641-011-9917-9 · DOI
  35. [43]Castello L Arantes CC Mcgrath DG Stewart DJ Sousa FSD Understanding fishing-induced extinctions in the Amazon Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 2015 25 587 598 10.1002/aqc.2491 · DOI
  36. [44]Hurd LE Amazon floodplain fish communities: habitat connectivity and conservation in a rapidly deteriorating environment Biological Conservation 2016 195 118 127 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.01.005 · DOI
  37. [45]Arantes C Castello L Stewart D Cetra M Queiroz H Population density, growth and reproduction of arapaima in an Amazonian river-floodplain Ecology of Freshwater Fish 2010 19 455 465 10.1111/j.1600-0633.2010.00431.x · DOI
  38. [46]Rӧpke CP Reproductive allocation by Amazon fishes in relation to feeding strategy and hydrology Hydrobiologia 2019 826 291 305 10.1007/s10750-018-3740-7 · DOI
  39. [48]Winemiller KO Jepsen DB Effects of seasonality and fish movement on tropical river food webs Journal of Fish Biology 1998 53 267 296 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1998.tb01032.x · DOI · Paper page
  40. [49]Batista V Inhamuns A Freias C de C Freire-Brasil D Characterization of the fishery in river communities in the low-Solimões/high-Amazon region Fisheries Management and Ecology 1998 5 419 435 10.1046/j.1365-2400.1998.550419.x · DOI
  41. [50]Renó V Novo E Escada M Forest Fragmentation in the Lower Amazon Floodplain: Implications for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Provision to Riverine Populations Remote Sensing 2016 8 886 10.3390/rs8110886 · DOI
  42. [51]Renó VF Novo EM Suemitsu C Rennó CD Silva TS Assessment of deforestation in the Lower Amazon floodplain using historical Landsat MSS/TM imagery Remote Sensing of Environment 2011 115 3446 3456 10.1016/j.rse.2011.08.008 · DOI · Paper page
  43. [52]Winemiller KO Patterns of variation in life history among South American fishes in seasonal environments Oecologia 1989 81 225 241 10.1007/BF00379810 28312542 · DOI
  44. [53]Winemiller KO Rose KA Patterns of life-history diversification in North American fishes: implications for population regulation Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 1992 49 2196 2218 10.1139/f92-242 · DOI · Paper page
  45. [54]Rӧpke CP Simultaneous abrupt shifts in hydrology and fish assemblage structure in a floodplain lake in the central Amazon Scientific Reports 2017 7 40170 10.1038/srep40170 28071701 PMC5223205 · DOI · Paper page
  46. [55]Winemiller KO Ecomorphological diversification in lowland freshwater fish assemblages from five biotic regions Ecological Monographs 1991 61 343 365 10.2307/2937046 · DOI
  47. [56]Petry P Bayley PB Markle DF Relationships between fish assemblages, macrophytes and environmental gradients in the Amazon River floodplain Journal of Fish Biology 2003 63 547 579 10.1046/j.1095-8649.2003.00169.x · DOI
  48. [57]Jørgensen Bent Exponential Dispersion Models Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Methodological) 1987 49 2 127 145
  49. [58]Peel D Bravington M Kelly N Wood SN Knuckey I A model-based approach to designing a fishery-independent survey Journal of agricultural, biological, and environmental statistics 2013 18 1 21 10.1007/s13253-012-0114-x · DOI
  50. [59]Carvalho Felipe C. Murie Debra J. Hazin Fábio H.V. Hazin Humberto G. Leite-Mourato Bruno Travassos Paulo Burgess George H. Catch rates and size composition of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) caught by the Brazilian pelagic longline fleet in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean Aquatic Living Resources 2010 23 4 373 385 10.1051/alr/2011005 · DOI
  51. [60]Li Yan Jiao Yan He Qing Decreasing uncertainty in catch rate analyses using Delta-AdaBoost: An alternative approach in catch and bycatch analyses with high percentage of zeros Fisheries Research 2011 107 261 271 10.1016/j.fishres.2010.11.008 · DOI
  52. [61]Shono Hiroshi Application of the Tweedie distribution to zero-catch data in CPUE analysis Fisheries Research 2008 93 154 162 10.1016/j.fishres.2008.03.006 · DOI
  53. [63]Armstrong RA When to use the Bonferroni correction Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics 2014 34 502 508 10.1111/opo.12131 24697967 · DOI · Paper page
  54. [64]Dunn PK Smyth GK Randomized quantile residuals Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 1996 5 236 244
  55. [65]Laliberté E Legendre P A distance-based framework for measuring functional diversity from multiple traits Ecology 2010 91 299 305 10.1890/08-2244.1 20380219 · DOI
  56. [66]Cressie, N. Statistics for spatial data. (John Wiley \& Sons, 2015).
  57. [67]Sokal RR Oden NL Spatial autocorrelation in biology: 1. Methodology Biological journal of the Linnean Society 1978 10 199 228 10.1111/j.1095-8312.1978.tb00013.x · DOI
  58. [68]Giner, G. & Smyth, G. K. Statmod: Probability Calculations for the Inverse Gaussian Distribution. arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.06687 (2016). · arXiv
  59. [69]Dunn PK Smyth GK Series evaluation of Tweedie exponential dispersion model densities Statistics and Computing 2005 15 267 280 10.1007/s11222-005-4070-y · DOI
  60. [71]Paradis E Claude J Strimmer K APE: analyses of phylogenetics and evolution in R language Bioinformatics 2004 20 289 290 10.1093/bioinformatics/btg412 14734327 · DOI
  61. [74]Laliberté, E., Legendre, P., Shipley, B. & Laliberté, M. E. Package “FD.”Measuring functional diversity from multiple traits, and other tools for functional ecology (2014). 20380219
  62. [75]Castello L Macedo MN Large-scale degradation of Amazonian freshwater ecosystems Global change biology 2016 22 990 1007 10.1111/gcb.13173 26700407 · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Arantes, C. C., Winemiller, K. O., Asher, A., Castello, L., Hess, L. L., Petrere, M., & Freitas, C. E. C.
Affiliations
  • Michigan State University (US)
  • Texas A&M University (US)
  • Virginia Tech (US)
  • University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
  • Universidade Católica de Santos (BR)
Corresponding author
Arantes, Caroline C.
ORCID
Venue
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-11-13
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
16684-16684
ISSN
2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s41598-019-52243-0
PMC
PMC6853970
OpenAlex
W2982918730
Cited by
85
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 5
FWCI
6.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (1257813, 1639115)
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX12AD27G, NNX14AD29G)
  • Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (200893/2012‐2, 563073/2010)
  • Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Fish biology, ecology, and behavior
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Fish Ecology and Management Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
Keywords
floodplain fish, land cover, forest cover, fish biomass, Amazon River floodplain, deforestation, functional traits, functional richness, functional dispersion, life-history traits, trophic traits, swimming performance, microhabitat use, habitat generalists
MeSH terms
Animals, Environmental Monitoring, Fishes, Ecosystem, Biomass, Biodiversity, Rivers, Floods

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review