Amazon Fish project
Building the largest freshwater fish biodiversity database for the entire Amazon basin
Overview
The Amazon Fish database integrates information available in published articles, books, gray literature, online databases, museums and universities. The database is currently updated by including data from the project partners and from more than 90 scientific collections and 1.400 literature references. Each record is checked for systematic reliability and consistency, using as nomenclature authority file, the California Academy of Science’s Catalog of Fishes.
A Geographic Information System (GIS), based on the hydrological network and combining the best currently available data sources is linked to the biological database. The GIS includes all major environmental factors meaningful in explaining fish species distribution and related to geographical isolation and habitat fragmentation, habitat diversity, past and contemporary climate, anthropogenic pressures and future climatic projections.
By developing basin wide analyses, the project helps regional conservation programs and contributes to large-scale transnational ecosystem management. The Amazon Fish database is an essential basis for analyzing future trends due to climate change and for helping defining relevant areas of work for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) at the local, national and regional levels.
