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Introduction: The purpose of this page is to provide easy access to present knowledge of the freshwater fishes of western Ecuador. The fish fauna of western Ecuador is not well known. There is little published on it and what exists is broadly scattered and often difficult to access. The freshwater fishes of western Ecuador are separated from those of eastern Ecuador by the Andes mountains. Fish diversity in western Ecuador is much lower than in eastern Ecuador probably because the west is much drier and has fewer and smaller rivers (on the eastern side of Ecuador the rivers ultimately merge with the mighty Amazon). There are approximately 140 species of fishes regularly inhabiting freshwater lakes and streams in western Ecuador (Barriga, 1991), of which approximately 80 are from families that mostly occur in freshwater. These are almost certainly underestimates given the sparsity of research in the region. The primary freshwater species are a remnant of the larger fauna inhabiting the eastern side of the Andes and were isolated when the Andes rose. Of the approximately 40 genera inhabiting the area, about two thirds have species on the eastern side of the Andes as well (Barriga, 1991), and most of the genera endemic to the western side of the Andes are obviously recently derived from genera inhabiting the eastern side (Eigenmann, 1921a). My interests in the fish fauna of western Ecuador are diverse. Not only is the ecology and evolution of the fauna poorly understood (not to mention basic taxonomy), but the region is also under intense anthropomorphic pressure due to population growth, pollution, and continued modification of land for agriculture and forestry. Consequently, there is an urgency to study organisms in this region. In addition, the isolation of the fauna makes it quite unique. The fish communities that have evolved in this region occur no where else on Earth. Understanding how fish communities in western Ecuador function will provide broader insight into the evolution of neotropical fish faunas. In addition, the lower species diversity makes understanding ecological relationships and community structure a bit easier. The fish fauna of western Ecuador has also been exposed to changing environmental conditions caused by both natural geological events (like the rise of the Andes and the coastal mountain range) and human influences. Understanding how species and communities have responded can increase our understanding of how organisms respond to major environmental disturbances. At this stage, the web page is under development, so browse with caution. In the future, I hope to include a species list including pictures of all species, descriptions highlighting identifying chracateristics, and summaries of differences in species compsition among drainages. About me: I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University in New York and study how organisms diversify in nature. My dissertation was on the evolutionary biology of Alaskan threespine stickleback (I still actively study stickleback), so I am very interested in population-level phenomena, especially the origin of the differences characterizing species.
Acknowledgements: My research has been greatly supported by the W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship Program, the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), and the Long Island Group Advancing Science Education (LIGASE) at Stony Brook University, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Photo Credits Left: composite image created from figures in Eigenmann (1922). Right: picture of fisherman on the River Guayas taken by Windsor Aguirre. Created and Maintained by Windsor Aguirre Created August 26, 2006 |
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