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. 2020 Mar 19;7(1):96.
doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-0436-4.

A database of freshwater fish species of the Amazon Basin

Affiliations

A database of freshwater fish species of the Amazon Basin

Céline Jézéquel et al. Sci Data. .

Abstract

The Amazon Basin is an unquestionable biodiversity hotspot, containing the highest freshwater biodiversity on earth and facing off a recent increase in anthropogenic threats. The current knowledge on the spatial distribution of the freshwater fish species is greatly deficient in this basin, preventing a comprehensive understanding of this hyper-diverse ecosystem as a whole. Filling this gap was the priority of a transnational collaborative project, i.e. the AmazonFish project - https://www.amazon-fish.com/. Relying on the outputs of this project, we provide the most complete fish species distribution records covering the whole Amazon drainage. The database, including 2,406 validated freshwater native fish species, 232,936 georeferenced records, results from an extensive survey of species distribution including 590 different sources (e.g. published articles, grey literature, online biodiversity databases and scientific collections from museums and universities worldwide) and field expeditions conducted during the project. This database, delivered at both georeferenced localities (21,500 localities) and sub-drainages grains (144 units), represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater fish biodiversity, biogeography and conservation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a) Distribution of sampling sites recorded in the AmazonFish database and (b) delimitation and codes of the 144 sub-drainages units (see corresponding names in Online-only Table 1), based on a modified version of HydroBASINS (see methods). The major tributaries of the Amazon Basin are represented in different colours and their names are added in bold.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(a) Number of records, (b) density of sites (number of sites divided by the sub-drainage area and areas without information using the HydroBASINS Level7 spatial grain unit), (c) total number of species and (d) number of endemic species (species present only in the Amazon Basin and only in the sub-drainage) for the 144 sub-drainage units.

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