| Abstract: | The distributions of the fish species were examined in relation to environmental variables, to evaluate the effects of environmental degradation on the fish community of Batata Lake, a typical Amazonian clearwater lake. From 1979 to 1989, tailings composed of water and clay, extracted from bauxite by water jets, were discharged into Batata Lake. The tailings spread into about 30% of the lake’s area, where the level of the lake bottom rose and turbidity increased. In the present study, multivariate analyses were performed on data for environmental parameters and fish density and biomass. Fish were collected with gillnets during the annual hydrological cycle (filling, flood, drawdown and dry periods), in the silted area, the partly silted area (intermediate) and the natural area. Values of the Shannon index, density and biomass were compared among areas and periods to evaluate the effects of the tailings on community structure. Sediment resuspension, which reduces transparency, is accentuated in shallow water, and was the main factor regulating differences in the community structure between the natural and silted areas. The decrease in transparency occurs mainly during the filling period in the silted area and during the low-water period in the silted and intermediate areas, when sediment resuspension increases concentrations of nutrients and chlorophyll-a. The strong influence of migratory and piscivore species in low-transparency waters is likely associated with the greater bacterioplankton productivity and turnover rate observed by other authors in the silted area, increasing the importance of the heterotrophic food chain in Batata Lake. Reduction of transparency in the silted area was a selective factor for fish species. The death of part of the flooded forest vegetation was decisive in lowering densities of the igapó-associated species in the silted area. The unconsolidated substrate, the death of part of the igapó forest and the negative effects of low transparency – inhibiting resident visually oriented species in the affected areas – are the main factors causing the low diversity in the silted area as a whole. The correlations between CPUEs, conductivity and nutrients and chlorophyll-a concentrations do not appear to reflect cause–effect relationships, indicating that these environmental parameters are poor predictors of fish density in Batata Lake. |
