Fishes from baía da medalha, southern pantanal, Brazil: A 20 years review

Abstract

Located in the Pantanal of Miranda-Abobral, the Baı´a da Medalha is the largest pond close to the Base de Estudos do Pantanal of the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul. The Baı´a da Medalha has been a study site for several didactic and scientific projects for years. Nevertheless, its fish fauna has never been inventoried. Based on data collected from the beginning of the 1990s up to 2011, we provide a list of fish species from the Baı´a da Medalha. A total of 97 species were recorded, corresponding to about 40% of the species stated for the Pantanal. Characiformes and Siluriformes were the most species-rich orders, being Characidae and Cichlidae the families with the highest number of species. Regional seasonal flood dynamics and the abundance of aquatic macrophytes may be associated with this high diversity. The representative richness found in this lagoon highlights the importance of such taxonomic surveys to preserve the diversity of aquatic habitats within the Pantanal ecosystem.