Richness and diversity of fish associated to consolidated substrates of Bom Abrigo Island, south coast of São Paulo, southeastern Brazil

• Grant number: 14/17457-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Domingos Garrone Neto
• Grantee: Gabriel Raposo Silva de Souza
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus Experimental do Litoral Paulista. São Vicente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Just like real coral reefs, rocky reefs have a high diversity of organisms, especially fish. One of the factors responsible for such diversity is the high physical complexity of these ecosystems. However, despite the importance of these environments, the south coast of São Paulo lacks basic studies on reef fish communities associated with cliffs and rocky reefs aspects. In this context, the present study will be designed to estimate the richness, diversity and biomass of fish populations associated with consolidated substrates in an insular environment of the coast. The study will be conducted at Bom Abrigo Island, municipality of Cananeia, South Coast of São Paulo. Data collection will be done through transects using visual censuses conducted by SCUBA diving. The collectors curve will be use to estimate species richness and the Shannon index (H') will be used to calculate the diversity. The data will be evaluated for normality by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and for homogeneity of variances by Cochran test. If the data is not normal or heteroscedastic these will be transformed using log (x). A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with two fixed factors (season and sample site) will be performed for each variables (richness, diversity and biomass), then using the Student-Newman-Keuls a posteriori test in case of significant effect of the factors. If the data fail to be normal or homoscedastic, even with changes, the data will be analyzed by the Friedman test using the Dunn post test in case of a significant effect of the factors. Furthermore, a PERMANOVA similarity analysis will be used to determine if the composition of fish differs between points and months. The percentage of similarity SIMPER will be used to determine which species contributed most to the similarities and differences between the groups. It is expected that the results obtained may contribute significantly to the knowledge of the fish fauna of substrates consolidated from the South Coast of the State of São Paulo, whose knowledge gap is significant. In addition, the study will provide information for the use of fish fauna in the Bom Abrigo Island, especially regarding to the amateur and commercial fishing, which occurs in rocky shores and reefs around the island.