DNA Barcoding Reveals a Critical Spawning Ground in the Paranapanema River Basin, Southern Brazil
2025
Thiago S. Depintor | Wilson Frantine-Silva | Mario L. Orsi | Fernanda S. Almeida
Hydropower plants have significant impacts on aquatic biodiversity, particularly on migratory fish species. Effectively managing these impacts requires a comprehensive understanding of fish reproduction and recruitment within altered river systems, which can be assessed through ichthyoplankton studies. However, traditional morphological methods for identifying fish eggs and larvae present considerable challenges due to morphological ambiguity and developmental constraints. In this study, we applied DNA barcoding to characterize the ichthyoplankton community within a relictual lotic stretch downstream of the Capivara Dam, located on the Paranapanema River in Southern Brazil. Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene sequences from 79 samples were compared against the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) and GenBank databases, resulting in successful species-level identification for all samples, each exhibiting around 99.8% similarity. The identified specimens comprised eight species, six genera, four families, and two orders. Species from the order Siluriformes accounted for 60.5% of the total abundance, predominantly including migratory species such as Pimelodus ornatus, Pimelodus maculatus, Leporinus friderici, and Pinirampus pirinampu, the latter a species rarely observed in the basin. These findings highlight the importance of lotic stretches as spawning grounds and emphasize the need for their conservation. DNA barcoding proved to be an efficient method for species identification, providing essential data for environmental assessments and conservation strategies targeting local fish populations.
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