Environmental Factors Influencing Local Fish Species Richness and Differences between Hydroregions in South-Western France

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of 5 typological variables on the spatial dis- tribution patterns of fish species richness in south-western France, and, subsequently, to analyse differ- ences in the number of species occurring in 6 major hydroregions located within the overall...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Santoul, Frédéric, Soulard, Anne, Figuerola, Jordi, Céréghino, Régis, Mastrorillo, Sylvain
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2004
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/43276
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/43276
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Fish
Garonne basin
General linear modelling
hydroregions
Species richness
Descrição
Resumo:The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of 5 typological variables on the spatial dis- tribution patterns of fish species richness in south-western France, and, subsequently, to analyse differ- ences in the number of species occurring in 6 major hydroregions located within the overall study area. The data were collected at 329 sampling sites. General Linear Modelling was used to assess the influ- ence of each typological variable on local fish species richness, and to determine the differences in local fish species richness between the 6 hydroregions. Local species richness was significantly influenced by altitude, slope and catchment area, whereas distance from the source and stream width showed no significant relations with local richness. The Côteaux de Gascogne hydroregion had a significantly lower species richness, whereas no significant differences occurred among other neighbouring hydroregions. These results were congruent with the spatial distribution patterns of freshwater invertebrate species richness in the area, which were analysed in previous studies. At such a regional scale, we suggest that congruent patterns between fish and invertebrate species richness are almost certainly a result of simi- lar responses by different taxa to environmental conditions, rather than to biotic interactions.