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Science 24 September 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5692, pp. 1960 - 1962
DOI: 10.1126/science.1101240
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Reports

Amazonian Ecology: Tributaries Enhance the Diversity of Electric Fishes

Cristina Cox Fernandes,1,2* Jeffrey Podos,1 John G. Lundberg3

Neotropical rivers support a diverse array of endemic taxa, including electric fishes of the order Gymnotiformes. A comprehensive survey of the main channels of the Amazon River and its major tributaries (>2000-kilometer transect) yielded 43 electric fish species. Biogeographical analyses suggest that local mainstem electric fish diversity is enhanced by tributaries. Mainstem species richness tends to increase downstream of tributary confluences, and species composition is most similar between tributaries and adjacent downstream mainstem locations. These findings support a "nodal" or heterogeneous model of riverine community organization across a particularly extensive and diverse geographical region.

1 Department of Biology and Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
2 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Alameda Cosme Ferreira, 1756 Caixa Postal 478, CEP 69083, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
3 Department of Ichthyology, The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cristina{at}bio.umass.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)