Historical Evolution of the Trophic and Limnological Relationships in the Itaipu Reservoir: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Effects upon Fish Production

Abstract

Many experimental studies have contributed to the development of the theory of trophic chains in lacustrine habitats. They have revealed the important role played by fish, a subject that has been mostly ignored by limnological studies for the past few decades. Most of these studies were developed in Europe and in the United States. The general applicability of this theory has not yet been tested in subtropical and tropical habitats. In spite of controversies, the bottom-up: top-down trophic cascade hypotheses are the most adopted conceptual models. In this context, we examined if these hypotheses may be corroborated by data from the subtropical Itaipu Reservoir. A negative effect was verified between water transparency and total suspended solids. The detritivorous fish exerted a controlling effect on chlorophyll-a concentrations. Bottom-up effects were detected in four trophic levels, and top-down was detected in just one trophic level. The limnological variates influenced the chlorophyll-a concentration, which indicated that the lnTKN plus the effect of the quarter and the reservoir zone (and their interaction) were important.