Species-level ichthyoplankton dynamics for 97 fishes in two major river basins of the Amazon using quantitative metabarcoding.

The Amazon basin holds the world's largest freshwater fish diversity. Information on the intensity and timing of reproductive ecology of Amazonian fish is scant. We use a metabarcoding method by capture using a single probe to quantify species-level ichthyoplankton dynamics. We sampled the Marañón and the Ucayali rivers in Peru monthly for 2 years. We identified 97 species that spawned mainly during the flood start, the flood end or the receding periods, although some species had spawning activity in more than one period. This information was new for 40 of the species in the Amazon basin and 80 species in Peru. Most species ceased spawning for a month during a strong hydrological anomaly in January 2016, demonstrating the rapidity with which they react to environmental modifications during the breeding season. We also document another unreported event in the Amazon basin, the inverse phenology of species belonging to one genus (Triportheus). Overall larval flow in the Marañón was more than twice that of the Ucayali, including for most commercial species (between two and 20 times higher), whereas the Ucayali accounts for ~80% of the fisheries landings in the region. Our results are discussed in the light of the main anthropogenic threats to fishes, hydropower dam construction and the Hidrovía Amazónica, and should serve as a pre-impact baseline.

Aphyosemion pamaense, a new killifish species (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae) from Cameroon.

Aphyosemion panaense sp. nov. is described from the Pama River, a small tributary of the Nyong, in the surroundings of Pama, Cameroon. It belongs to the subgenus Chromaphyosenion Radda, 1971 and is distinguished from its relatives by a unique/diagnostic combination of characters: orange unpaired fins, an anal fin without spots, an orange throat and purple to blue-grey flanks. The new species is also genetically differentiated from all the other Chromaphyosemion species as revealed by mtDNA (cytochrome b) analysis and characterised by a unique karyotype showing tentative sex chromosomes with 2n=35 chromosomes in males versus 2n=36 in females.