Diversity of mollusks in streams of a montane region in southern Brazil

Authors

  • Roger Lopes de Sá Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Curso de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade Animal
  • Luciani Santin Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Curso de Ciências Biológicas
  • Aline Monique Blank do Amaral Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Curso de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade Animal
  • Alcemar Rodrigues Martello Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Curso de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade Animal
  • Carla Bender Kotzian Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Programa de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade Animal

Keywords:

freshwater mollusks, rithral zone, South America, gastropods, bivalves

Abstract

Stream mollusks in a region of slope in southern Brazil (Toropi River Basin) were inventoried by means of collections conducted in 40 sites, in altitudes ranging from 70 to 500 meters. At a whole, 18 species were found, represented predominantly by gastropods (11 species, 89.5% of the individuals). Potamolithus catharinae andUncancylus concentricus were the dominant species. The latter was also well distributed, occurring in 81% of the sampling sites. Among the bivalves, only the invasive Asian clam Corbicula fluminea was abundant, but it occurred in only one sampling site. Four species were rare, being represented by less than three individuals, and the Unionoida were represented by two species only. Dominance and diversity of gastropods were higher than the bivalves, reflecting the gravel substrate of stream beds in the Toropi River Basin. The low richness recorded in the area studied is related to paucity of fine sediments and macrophytes in the streams, factors that commonly favors mollusks diversity. This condition also characterizes other southern Brazilian streams.

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Published

2013-09-01

How to Cite

Sá, R. L. de, Santin, L., Amaral, A. M. B. do, Martello, A. R., & Kotzian, C. B. (2013). Diversity of mollusks in streams of a montane region in southern Brazil. Biota Neotropica, 13(3). Retrieved from //www.biotaneotropica.org.br/BN/article/view/1258

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