Received: 24 July 2018 | Revised: 20 June 2019 | Accepted: 12 November 2019 DOI: 10.1111/btp.12746 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Environmental and spatial effects on coastal stream fishes in the Atlantic rain forest Cristina da Silva Gonçalves1 | Robert Dan Holt2 | Mary C. Christman2 | Lilian Casatti1 1Laboratório de Ictiologia, Departamento de Zoologia e Botânica, Universidade Estadual Abstract Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho", São José Contemporary and historical factors influence assemblage structure. The envi- do Rio Preto, SP, Brasil ronmental and spatial influences acting on fish organization of rain forest coastal 2Arthur R. Marshall Jr. Ecological Sciences Laboratory, Department of Biology, streams in the Atlantic rain forest of Brazil were examined. Fish (and functional traits University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA such as morphology, diet, velocity preference, body size), environmental variables Correspondence (pH, water conductivity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, stream width, flow, depth, Cristina da Silva Gonçalves, Departamento substrate), and altitude were measured from 59 stream reaches. Asymmetric ei- de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho", Rio Claro, SP, genvector maps were used to model the spatial structure considering direction of Brasil. fish movements. Elevation played an important role—fish abundance, biomass, and Email:
[email protected] richness all decrease with increasing elevation. Fish communities are influenced by Funding information both environmental and spatial factors, but downstream movements were shown Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Grant/Award to be more important in explaining the observed spatial variation than were bidirec- Number: 301755/2013-2; FAPESP, tional and upstream movements. Spatial factors, as well as environmental variables Grant/Award Number: 2012/19723-0, 2013/20794-1 and 2008/55029-5; CAPES; influenced by the spatial structure, explained most of the variation in fish assem- University of Florida Foundation; IBAMA/ blages.