SCIENTIA MARINA 83(2) June 2019, 133-142, Barcelona (Spain) ISSN-L: 0214-8358 https://doi.org/10.3989/scimar.04855.25A Composition of the fish fauna in a tropical estuary: the ecological guild approach 1 2 3 1 Valdimere Ferreira , François Le Loc’h , Frédéric Ménard , Thierry Frédou , Flávia L. Frédou 1 1 Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE), Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros, s/n, 52171-900, Recife, Brazil. (VF) (Corresponding author) E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5051-9439 (TF) E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0510-6424 (FLF) E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5492-7205 2 IRD, Univ. Brest, CNRS, Ifremer, UMR LEMAR, F-29280 Plouzané, France. (FLL) E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3372-6997 3 Aix Marseille Univ., Université de Toulon, CNRS, IRD, UMR MIO, Marseille, France. (FM) E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1162-660X Summary: Ecological guilds have been widely applied for understanding the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosys- tems. This study describes the composition and the spatio-temporal changes in the structure of the fish fauna and the move- ments between the estuary and the coast of a tropical estuary, the Itapissuma/Itamaracá Complex (IIC) in northeastern Brazil. Fish specimens were collected during the dry and rainy seasons in 2013 and 2014. A total of 141 species of 34 families were recorded. Almost half of the species (66 species, 47%) were exclusive to the estuary and 50 species (35%) to the coast; 25 (18%) were common to both environments.