Comunidades de peixes da zona de surfe de praias arenosas: investigando os mitos, explorando diferentes metodologias e fornecendo conhecimento para estrategias de manejo

Author(s)

Yasmina Michel Liliane Shah Esmaeili

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2023-06-15

Examining board members

Antonia Cecília Zacagnini Amaral; Fosca Pedini Pereira Leite; André Luiz Machado Pessanha; Carlos Alberto de Moura Barboza

• Advisor: Alexander Turra; Antonia Cecília Zacagnini Amaral

Abstract

Coastal habitats are crucial environments for a diversity of fish species, and sandy beach surf zones are used by many fish species as nurseries, feeding grounds, spawning grounds and a "safe zone" against potential predators. However, despite their importance, these ecosystems are the least studied coastal habitats, and some issues compromise the proper understanding of their ecological role. For example, it has been argued that inadequate methods compromise full knowledge of biodiversity and the functioning of surf zones. New sampling techniques such as surf-BRUVS (Biated Remote Underwater Video Stations) could help to overcome these limitations, but their application in different regions and under different conditions still needs to be evaluated. Another unexplored issue is the composition of species and the functioning of surf zones of beaches with environmental conditions, especially different morphodynamic types, limiting the understanding of these patterns in larger spatial scales. The surf zones are also subjected to various stressors related to human activities and interventions, especially by urbanization and coastal tourism, and there is limited knowledge about how environmental conditions and human activities affect the taxonomic and functional diversity of these environments. Finally, it is known that coastal urbanization can affect biological interactions such as host-parasite relationships by increasing host susceptibility or parasite diversity through exposure to changes in the physical and chemical environment. Considering the economic importance of many of the fish species found in the surf zones of sandy beaches, and the fact that coastal environments sustain 40 to 60% of marine fisheries, knowledge about the prevalence of parasite infestation in fish becomes relevant for the management of fish stocks. In this thesis, I investigated 77 sandy beach sites on the north coast of the state of São Paulo to obtain a better understanding of the surf zone fish communities to answer the above-mentioned questions. To achieve these goals, I compared sampling methods (i.e., trawl and surf-BRUVS) and their validity in surf zones with different environmental characteristics (Chapter 1); investigated taxonomic and functional differences in surf zone fish assemblages and how they are influenced by environmental and anthropogenic features (Chapter 2); and examined the influence of coastal urbanization on the prevalence and occurrence of parasites in fishes (Chapter 3). The results obtained demonstrated (1) the complementarity of the sampling methods; (2) that both coastal urbanization and the morphodynamic state of beaches affect the taxonomic and functional structure of fish assemblages in the surf zones; and (3) that parasite infestation peaks occurred in highly urbanized beaches. These results were published in peer-reviewed internatio (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/05099-9 - Fish communities of sandy beach surf zones: unraveling the myths, exploring different methodologies and providing knowledge for management strategies
• Grantee: Yasmina Michel Liliane Shah Esmaeili
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate