Name: Felipe Vieira Guimarães
Type: MSc dissertation
Publication date: 02/03/2020
Advisor:

Name	Role
Luisa Maria Sarmento Soares Filho	Advisor *
Luiz Fernando Duboc da Silva	Co-advisor *

Examining board:

Name	Role
Luisa Maria Sarmento Soares Filho	Advisor *
Luiz Fernando Duboc da Silva	Co advisor *
Ana Cristina Petry	External Examiner *
Rosana Souza Lima	External Examiner *

Summary: Abstract: In the state of Espírito Santo, only 11% of its
original Atlantic Forest remains, in the form of small remnants,
including the Córrego Grande Biological Reserve, which features
headwaters and small tributaries of the Itaúnas River basin.
Thus, the present project aims to contribute with the knowledge
about the anthropic impacts on aquatic environments and their
riparian zones in seven sampling sites around the Córrego Grande
Biological Reserve, as well as to evaluate the influence of
environmental variables on the ichthyofauna and identify possible
species indicating water quality at these locations. Therefore,
two samples field expeditions in seven reaches of the sub-basins
around Córrego Grande Biological Reserve were performed. An
integrated environmental quality index was applied to detect main
points to be adopted as references for good ecological
parameters. Besides this, analyses to evaluate which species of
the fish fauna could serve as bioindicators were performed. A
canonical correspondence analysis was used in order to
graphically relate the presence and abundance of species with the
sampled sections, environmental variables and the environmental
quality index. Finally, an analysis of indicator species was
applied to attest to the bioindication power of certain species
in relation to specific environmental quality levels. As a
result, 1134 specimens of fishes were sampled, belonging to four
orders, nine families, 16 genera and 18 species. Of the seven
sample sites, five could be classified as references to good
environmental integrity, one of intermediate quality and one of
poor quality. Canonical correspondence analysis reveals the
influence of substrate types and the presence of vegetation,
whether marginal or riparian vegetation, as the most important
factors in the distribution of species in sub-basins. No species
was significantly classified as an indicator of environmental
quality in the study area. New studies need to be carried out to
analyze the water quality of the sampling reaches and new
practices, especially of agriculture, need to be implemented in
the region, which has intense human impacts.
Key words: Atlantic forest; Community ecology; Conservation;
Ichthyofauna; IDI