Planning the next fishing trip: where are the gaps in knowledge about freshwater fish assemblages in Argentina?

MAPELLI, FERNANDO J.; FAMELI, ALBERTO; KITTLEIN, MARCELO J.; CASCIOTTA, JORGE R.; ALMIRÓN, ADRIANA E.

HYDROBIOLOGIA

SPRINGER

Año: 2021

0018-8158

In this study, we present a new method tocompare the distribution of knowledge regarding thebiodiversity of a taxa with the distribution of environmentsinhabited by that taxa, in order to identify themain geographical gaps in biodiversity knowledge.We compared the geographical distribution of studiesdescribing freshwater fish assemblages in Argentinawith the distribution of freshwater bodies, delimitingpriority areas that require additional sampling effort inorder to achieve a more balanced understanding of thistaxa?s diversity throughout the country. Our resultsshow a substantial geographical bias in the distributionof knowledge regarding freshwater fish assemblagesin Argentina, with most of the studies concentrating ona few areas of the country. Many sectors appear asundersampled, and most of the country has beenstudied only recently, after many sites have undergonesevere impact by anthropic activities. The absence offish assemblages descriptions previous to habitatchanges in these sites considerably limits our capacityto understand changes in biodiversity that anthropichabitat modifications might have generated or even theones they are generating now. We show the areas ofArgentina where freshwater fish diversity needs to bestudied most urgently based on the distribution offreshwater habitats.