Small-scalle fisheries of frugovorous fish in clear and black water rivers of the brazilian amazon

In seasonally flooded forests of lowland Amazonia, frugivorous fish provide different ecosystem services (ESS): They play an important role in seed dispersal (regulating ESS), but they are also an essential resource for artisanal fisheries (provisioning ESS). Extensive use of limited resources can generate conflicts of interest between conservation goals and the needs of local livelihoods. Co-management schemes try to integrate local food security and ecosystem conservation in the form of extractive reserves (RESEX), where inhabitants are exclusively allowed to extract forest resources while following management rules. Here, we assess the influence of co-management on frugivorous fish and local fisheries of Tapajos (clear water) and Negro (black water) River in the Brazilian Amazon. To this end, we test the following hypotheses: 1) Frugivorous fish are important for fisheries and selectively extracted; 2) Frugivorous fish abundance, size and fisheries productivity is higher inside the RESEX than outside. Fish landings from 1457 fishing trips were registered over four months by local fishermen in eight fishing communities of each river. Further, 12,730 fish were sampled through 208 gillnet placements, in 32 sites in the floodplain lakes and river channels of the communities. Frugivorous fish are among the ten most fished species in both rivers, reflecting their importance for local communities. In both rivers, landing records show a higher percentage of frugivorous fish biomass (22% of 7,342 kg in Tapajós and 14% of 4,609 kg in Negro River) than samplings (5.9% of 349.2 kg in Tapajós and 6% of 458.3 kg in Negro River), indicating a selectivity of fisheries towards frugivores. A pressão pesqueira (medida como demanda por pescado) nos frugívoros se mostrou mais elevada fora de cada RESEX (8 ± 5,4 kg no Rio Tapajós e 5,6 ± 3,1 kg no Rio Negro) que dentro (0,7 ± 0,3 kg no Rio Tapajós e 0,8 ± 0,1 kg no rio Negro). A produtividade da pesca, medida em Captura por Unidade de Esforço (CPUE), e a proporção de peixes frugívoros na captura total foram maiores fora da RESEX no rio Tapajós (CPUE: t=-3,7; dF = 4,2; p = 0,02; proporçao: t = -6,7; dF = 5; p = 0,001) e não variaram no rio Negro (CPUE: t = -1,9; dF = 5,6; p = 0,1; proporçao: t = -0,9; dF = 4,6; p = 0,4). No geral, o tamanho dos peixes frugívoros foi maior dentro da RESEX no rio Negro, mas não no rio Tapajós. Os pescadores capturaram pacus de maior tamanho (Myleus spp., Mylossoma spp., Myloplus spp., Metynnis spp.) dentro da RESEX no rio Negro (D=0,42; p