Rapid morphological change in multiple cichlid ecotypes following the damming of a major clearwater river in Brazil.

ABSTRACT: While anthropogenic disturbances can have damaging effects on biodiversity, they also offer an opportunity to understand how species adapt to new environments and may even provide insights into the earliest stages of evolutionary diversification. With these topics in mind, we explored the morphological changes that have occurred across several cichlid species following the damming of the Tocantins River, Brazil. The Tocantins was once a large (2,450 km), contiguous river system; however, upon closure of the Tucuruí Hydroelectric Dam in 1984, a large (~2,850 km²), permanent reservoir was established. We used geometric morphometrics to evaluate changes in native cichlids, comparing historical museum specimens collected from the Tocantins to contemporary specimens collected from th

SUBMITTER: Gilbert MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7691474 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature