Coupling remote sensing and eDNA to monitor environmental impact: A pilot to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon.

Monitoring is essential to ensure that environmental goals are being achieved, including those of sustainable agriculture. Growing interest in environmental monitoring provides an opportunity to improve monitoring practices. Approaches that directly monitor land cover change and biodiversity annually by coupling the wall-to-wall coverage from remote sensing and the site-specific community composition from environmental DNA (eDNA) can provide timely, relevant results for parties interested in the success of sustainable agricultural practices.

Mapping differences in mammalian distributions and diversity using environmental DNA from rivers.

Finding more efficient ways to monitor and estimate the diversity of mammalian communities is a major step towards their management and conservation. Environmental DNA (eDNA) from river water has recently been shown to be a viable method for biomonitoring mammalian communities. Most of the studies to date have focused on the potential for eDNA to detect individual species, with little focus on describing patterns of community diversity and structure.

New 12S metabarcoding primers for enhanced Neotropical freshwater fish biodiversity assessment.

The megadiverse Neotropical fish fauna lacks a comprehensive and reliable DNA reference database, which hampers precise species identification and DNA based biodiversity assessment in the region. Here, we developed a mitochondrial 12S ribosomal DNA reference database for 67 fish species, representing 54 genera, 25 families, and six major Neotropical orders. We aimed to develop mini-barcode markers (i.

Space-time dynamics in monitoring neotropical fish communities using eDNA metabarcoding.

The biodiverse Neotropical ecoregion remains insufficiently assessed, poorly managed, and threatened by unregulated human activities. Novel, rapid and cost-effective DNA-based approaches are valuable to improve understanding of the biological communities and for biomonitoring in remote areas. Here, we evaluate the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding for assessing the structure and distribution of fish communities by analysing water and sediment from 11 locations along the Jequitinhonha River catchment (Brazil).

Reproductive biology of the Neotropical catfish Iheringichthys labrosus (Siluriformes: Pimelodidae), with anatomical and morphometric analysis of gonadal tissues.

The reproduction of Iheringichthys labrosus (Lütken, 1874) from the Turvo River, Brazil, was studied using anatomical, biometric, histological, and ultrastructural techniques. Between April 2014 and March 2015, a total of 278 males and 512 females were captured bimonthly. The testes of Iheringichthys labrosus are fringed and possess a cranial spermatogenic region and an exclusively secretory caudal region.

Environmental DNA metabarcoding as an effective and rapid tool for fish monitoring in canals.

We focus on a case study along an English canal comparing environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding with two types of electrofishing techniques (wade-and-reach and boom-boat). In addition to corroborating data obtained by electrofishing, eDNA provided a wider snapshot of fish assemblages. Given the semi-lotic nature of canals, we encourage the use of eDNA as a fast and cost-effective tool to detect and monitor whole fish communities.

Hidden Diversity Hampers Conservation Efforts in a Highly Impacted Neotropical River System.

Neotropical Rivers host a highly diverse ichthyofauna, but taxonomic uncertainty prevents appropriate conservation measures. The Doce River Basin (DRB), lying within two Brazilian threatened hotspots (Atlantic Forest and Brazilian Savanna) in south-east Brazil, faced the worst ever environmental accident reported for South American catchments, due to a dam collapse that spread toxic mining tailings along the course of its main river. Its ichthyofauna was known to comprise 71 native freshwater fish species, of which 13 endemic.

Early larvae ontogeny of the Neotropical fishes: Prochilodus costatus and P. argenteus (Characiformes: Prochilodontidae).

Early development of fish larvae is a highly dynamic process and its study may provide important information about ontogenetic development, bioenergetic growth, behaviour, taxonomic characteristics for identification in natural environments, identification of spawning areas, and population monitoring. With the aim to provide knowledge about their growth and behaviour, to support larval rearing, and also taxonomic purposes, we studied the life history of the Prochilodus argenteus and P. costatus from hatching until the complete absorption of the yolk.

Integrative taxonomy detects cryptic and overlooked fish species in a neotropical river basin.

The great freshwater fish diversity found in the neotropical region makes management and conservation actions challenging. Due to shortage of taxonomists and insufficient infrastructure to deal with such great biodiversity (i.e.