Juan J Schmitter-Soto

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• Dr.
• Senior Researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur

Se registró la fauna de odonatos adultos distribuidos en seis arroyos de la Reserva de la Biósfera Volcán Tacaná, durante las temporadas de lluvia y de sequía entre octubre-noviembre de 2023 y enero-febrero 2024. Se contabilizó un total de 25 especies distribuidas en 11 géneros y siete familias. Con este estudio, el número de especies reportadas en...

The joint American Fisheries Society and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Committee on Names of Fishes has updated the list of the species of fishes in the three countries of North America. This contribution provides succinct analyses of the changes in these data over the eight editions, for example, the discovery of new specie...

Motivation: Freshwater ecosystems have been heavily impacted by land-use changes, but syntheses on the impacts on freshwater ecosystems are still limited. Here, we compiled a global database encompassing 248 studies with species abundance data (from multiple taxon groups and geographic locations) across sites with different land-use categories. Thi...

We recommend standardized methods for sampling freshwater and brackish-water fishes in cenotes and discuss opportunities and challenges inherent in sampling these diverse environments.

Éste es un homenaje a He´ctor S. Espinosa-Pe´rez, por muchas de´cadas miembro de la Asociacio´n Americana de Ictio´logos y Herpeto´logos, y fundador y ex presidente de la Sociedad Ictiolo´gica Mexicana, A.C. Uno de los ictio´logos E´ mexicanos ma´s notables de los u´ltimos tiempos, He´ctor fallecio´ en la Ciudad de Me´xico el 20 de febrero de 2022,...

Fish communities of tropical lakes are commonly predicted by local environmental variables, including depth, temperature, oxygen concentration, and substrate composition. Increasingly, however, lacustrine fish communities are being impacted by invasive species. In the state of Quintana Roo, on the Caribbean versant of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexic...

Gonad development stages (GDS) are a critical tool that can be easily applied in fisheries to visually discriminate mature from immature organisms and assess their reproductive condition. This study proposes a morphochromatic scale to define gonad development stages for razor surgeonfish (Prionurus laticlavius) based on morphological and structural...

The trophic position (TP) and proportional contribution of prey for six species of snappers were assessed at two interconnected coastal environments of the Mexican Caribbean: the mangroves of Río Huach Channel and Chetumal/Corozal Bay, and the seagrass beds of the adjacent Xcalak Reef Lagoon. This study provides a trophic scenario using stable isot...

A diferencia de los taxones superiores, las especies no requieren ser monofiléticas; por debajo de ese nivel no hay taxones, sino poblaciones e individuos, con relaciones no filogenéticas, sino tocogenéticas. La existencia de “paraespecies”, especies no originadas a partir de una única población, es previsible, sobre todo cuando la especiación ha s...

The most significant results obtained during 15 years of research (2004–2019), monitoring, and management in the coral reefs of the Guanahacabibes National Park are presented. The most studied zoological groups have been the hard coral and fish communities. Invasive lionfish (Pterois volitans) have been investigated more specifically, due to the ne...

Most research on pharmaceutical presence in the environment to date has focused on 43 smaller scale assessments of freshwater and riverine systems, relying mainly on assays 44 of water samples, while studies in marine ecosystems and of exposed biota are sparse. 45 This study investigated the pharmaceutical burden in bonefish (Albula vulpes), an 46...

The eighth edition of Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico (Page et al. 2023) continues the effort established by seven earlier editions to standardize the names of North American fishes, thereby improving communication among fisheries biologists, popular media, and others with an interest in fishes. It p...

This authoritative reference provides an accurate, up-to-date checklist of common and scientific names for all described and taxonomically valid fish species living in fresh and marine waters of North America. This edition reflects numerous taxonomic changes that have occurred since 2004 and includes 3,875 species and 260 families. Provides the rat...

Fishes make differential use of resources in their environment. Snappers carry out ontogenic movements among coastal habitats, which leads to them havingleading to diverse diets. We investigated the diets of seven species of snappers (Lutjanus apodus, L. analis, L. griseus, L. jocu, L. mahogoni, L. synagris, and Ocyurus chrysurus) in three intercon...

Understanding movement and dispersal is critical for fisheries management and conservation, but many studies rely on tagging and telemetry, which can be costly and labor-intensive. Recent research on Atlantic bonefish (Albula vulpes) has shown that gill microbiomes vary among populations, raising the possibility that microbial communities might pro...

The cleaning symbiosis in coral reef fish is one of the most remarkable mutualist marine interactions; the main actors are cleaner and client fishes, that communicate via tactile and visual stimulation, and the specific sites where this interaction happens are called cleaning stations. The removal of ectoparasites is a contribution to the health of...

We documented the nearshore ray-finned fishes in Puerto Morelos Reef National Park (PMRNP) by sampling 57 localities, including rocky intertidal pools, sandy bottoms, Thalassia beds, coral reefs, artificial reefs, karstic-slab bottoms, demersal-pelagic areas, and sessile-Sargassum patches. We recorded seven species new to Caribbean Mexican waters a...

The Neotropical region hosts 4225 freshwater fish species, ranking first among the world's most diverse regions for freshwater fishes. Our NEOTROPICAL FRESHWATER FISHES data set is the first to produce a large‐scale Neotropical freshwater fish inventory, covering the entire Neotropical region from Mexico and the Caribbean in the north to the southe...

The razor surgeonfish, Prionurus laticlavius, listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species under the Least Concern category, plays an important ecological role as energy regulator in reef communities, but it is sought by the aquarium and aquaculture industry, and also is consumed by people. This study estimated the length-weight relationship (...

Atlantic Bonefish (Albula vulpes) are economically important due to their popularity with recreational anglers. In the State of Florida, USA, bonefish population numbers declined by approximately 60% between the 1990s and 2015. Habitat loss, water quality impairment, chemical inputs, and other anthropogenic factors have been implicated as causes, b...

Las lagunas costeras son ecosistemas altamente productivos y ecológicamente complejos, de amplia distribución en los litorales de México. Los estudios sobre ellas son numerosos, aunque aislados entre si. El empleo del análisis ecológico de redes permite estudiarlas con un enfoque integral, resaltando los atributos estructurares y funcionales del ec...

Rare species necessitate alternative sur- vey techniques and, in the case of exploited resources, any attempt to monitor their abundance with a mean- ingful benchmark should also include local ecological knowledge (LEK) of local users. This study evaluates the status of Goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) in the Mexican Caribbean via LEK and also...

In the Mexican Caribbean, marine protected areas have been established to tackle marine ecosystem degradation caused by the coastal development that started in Cancún in the 1970s and extended south to the border with Belize in the 1990s. It is crucial to assess their effectiveness for conservation of the reef ecosystem, but also the perception of...

Increased aquaculture production has resulted in the widespread establishment of African Oreochromis species in Mexico, impacting native ichthyofauna. In the state of Quintana Roo, part of the Caribbean versant of the Yucatan Peninsula, Oreochromis spp. are widely distributed. However, there are still limited quantitative data on their abundance re...

The responses of marine organisms to changes in their environments can be studied using a variety of methods. Captive studies are highly controlled approaches that measure one or more parameters of interest in an enclosed area. Sample sizes are usually small, but experimental design and measurement methods are more controllable than in natural envi...

Este capítulo aborda la peculiar biota de los cenotes yucatecos, con énfasis en la flora y fauna acuáticas, su composición y estructura, así como elementos de su funcionamiento ecológico y su interés biogeográfico. Acceso abierto al libro completo en http://www.librosoa.unam.mx/handle/123456789/3298#:~:text=Resumen%20El%20libro%20Los%20Ojos%20de%2...

The purpose of this short communication is to describe the circum- stances of the designation of a wrong specimen as lectotype, to designate another specimen from the original description as the correct lectotype, and to exclude the formerly designated specimen from the type series of the Banded Tetra, Astyanax aeneus.

The Yucatan Peninsula, as a physiographic region, includes the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, as well as the northern half of Belize and the Guatemalan department of Petén. This area harbors a moderate diversity of freshwater fishes, but several ofthem are endemic species, most ofwhich are endangered, including the species f...

Rocio gemmata Contreras-Balderas & Schmitter-Soto 2007 is a valid species, diagnosable from the widespread congener R. octofasciata.

Las áreas naturales protegidas necesitan la participación de sectores sociales, locales y regionales, así que requieren de la investigación para documentar lo que protegen y contar con insumos para adecuados pro- gramas de manejo. En este sentido, términos como corredores biológicos o diseños comparativos adquieren relevancia en la búsqueda de sint...

Carretas-Pereyra is an estuarine lagoon system located in the southern Mexican Pacific coast. Its connection to the sea is intermittent, because the mouth of the system closes seasonally under natural conditions, but it is often opened artificially for artisanal fishery purposes. In order to know the degree of development, structure, and functionin...

We analyzed the local variation of fish assemblages in four coastal lagoon systems surrounded by mangroves, draining into the Gulf of Tehuantepec (Pacific versant of Mexico), and determined the spatial patterns of alpha, beta, and gamma diversity. Fish were sampled between 2004 and 2016 at 63 sites using cast nets. The collected data were supplemen...

Many tropical fisheries are data-poor and lack population demographic information needed for effective management and conservation. In this study we used mark-recapture of bonefish, Albula vulpes, an important species in catch-and-release recreational fisheries , to estimate capture probabilities. Moreover, for the first time we generated key demog...

Impact of invasive species on native biota may be due to predation, competition for space or food, or indirect effects. Lionfish (Pterois volitans), invasive in the western Atlantic, is a voracious generalist predator, so it is expected to have a significant trophic overlap with native fishes of comparable size and habits. The goal of this study wa...

Building trust in science and evidence-based decision-making depends heavily on the credibility of studies and their findings. Researchers employ many different study designs that vary in their risk of bias to evaluate the true effect of interventions or impacts. Here, we empirically quantify, on a large scale, the prevalence of different study des...

Although bonefish, Albula vulpes, supports a culturally and socioeconomically important recreational fishery in the Caribbean Sea, little is known about their population characteristics. Understanding their population parameters are important for the creation of a sustainable fishery strategy in the Caribbean region. We used multistate modeling to...

Invasive loricariid in the upper Hondo River. Maximum TL 430 mm, weight 585 g. Growth isometric, sex ratio 1:1. Mature females found yea-round, but GSI peaked in summer. Size at first maturity 319 mm, average fecundity 3615 oocytes per female, resp. higher and lower compared to other invaded sites, which helps explains why this invasion is less suc...

Mexican freshwater fishes in the IUCN Red List

Species introductions and extirpations are key aspects of aquatic ecosystem change that need to be examined at large geographic and temporal scales. The Pánuco Basin (Eastern Mexico) has high ichthyological diversity and ecological heterogeneity. However, freshwater fish (FWF) introductions and extirpations since the mid-1900s have modified species...

Introducción n la península de Yucatán, los cenotes son el ambiente dulceacuícola por excelencia. Por la naturaleza kárstica de la región, éstos se forman por disolución de la roca caliza y representan el tipo de cuerpo de agua más común, y a veces el único, en la mayor parte de la península. No obstante, en el centro y sur hay también lagunas, com...

Fish assemblages change significantly with physical and chemical characteristics of water; however, their response to the variability of geomorphic habitats has been rarely evaluated in lagoon-estuarine in one of these systems of the Mexican Pacific. Spatio-temporal variation of fish assemblage structure was assessed for three habitats: lagoon, est...

Increased connectivity between coastal lagoons and the sea is expected to entail a greater proportion of marine species in the former. Chetumal Bay, estuary of the Hondo river into the Caribbean, had a limited access to the sea until the opening of the Zaragoza Canal. We sought changes in the fish community from 1999-2001 (just after an expansion o...

Bonefish (Albula vulpes) is a socioeconomically important species that supports a data-poor recreational fishery in developing countries. Understanding how environmental variables influence its abundance and movement is important for better decision-making. This study used mark-recapture to examine the association between abiotic (temperature, sali...

The Yucatan Peninsula (YP) suffered several marine transgressions and regressions during the Quaternary, thus molding the distribution of its present biota, especially its freshwater fish fauna. The Mayan cichlid (Mayaheros urophthalmus Günther) is a euryhaline fish native to the Atlantic slope of Mexico and northern Central America, including the...

Increased connectivity between coastal lagoons and the sea is expected to entail a greater proportion of marine species in the former. Chetumal Bay, estuary of the Hondo river into the Caribbean, had a limited access to the sea until the opening of the Zaragoza Canal. We sought changes in the fish community from 1999-2001 (just after an expansion o...

¿Para qué pertenecer a una sociedad científica?

Bonefish (Albula vulpes) are an important resource for catch-and-release fishing in the Caribbean Sea. Understanding movements within and between the Caribbean Coast (CC) and Chetumal-Corozal Bay (CB) in Mexico and Belize is crucial for identifying and protecting home ranges, migration routes, pre-spawning and spawning sites. We used a mixed-method...

A trophic model is presented for the coastal lagoon system Chantuto-Panzacola, Southern Pacific Mexico, with the aim of estimating its degree of development and functionality. Thirty-four functional groups (one for birds, one crocodilians, 20 fishes, nine zoobenthos, two plankton, one detritus) were analyzed using Ecopath’s approach, with species b...

El proyecto estudió los movimientos de peces entre el mar Caribe (áreas protegidas de Xcalak, México y Bacalar Chico, Belice) y la bahía de Chetumal/Corozal, también un área protegida (Santuario del Manatí), por marcado-recaptura, isótopos estables y parasitología, con énfasis en el macabí (Albula vulpes), un recurso valioso y vulnerable, así como...

Inter-habitat movements related to trophic changes and growth of the Great Barracuda, Sphyraena barracuda (Edwards, 1771), were evidenced by stomach content and stable isotope analyses in the Chetumal/Corozal Bay, the Zaragoza Canal, and the adjacent western Caribbean coast, southern Quintana Roo (Mexico) and northern Belize. One hundred sixteen sp...

Part of the problem of resource harvesting is that it may trigger undesirable evolutionary effects, for example: selection for earlier maturation. This has been reported in some fish groups, specially in sharks. Therefor, some recent contributions have focused on protecting the evolutionary potential of the harvested populations and have proposed c...

The Mayan Cichlid (Mayaheros urophthalmus) is usually considered to be a complex of 18 subspecies, most of which are endemic to the Yucatan Peninsula and were diagnosed by phenetic analyses based on traditional morphometrics and color pattern. However, morphological differences can be due to environmental conditions rather than taxonomic distinctiv...

Lionfish are successful invasive predators in the Caribbean region and inhabit a large range of habitats. Our study in the Caribbean has focused on the relationships between the biological characteristics of lionfish particularly their size, their activities and use of those different habitats. In this study, we observed a high number of lionfish i...

A checklist of fishes recorded from Mar Muerto, La Joya-Buenavista, and Los Patos-Solo Dios lagoon-estuarine systems, northeastern Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico is presented. Fish samples were collected through 34 stations using several kinds of fishing gear, between April 2007 and May 2016. The checklist includes 2 classes, 19 orders, 52 families, 8...

Las estimaciones más recientes sobre el número de especies planetarias son realmente abrumadoras porque puede haber 1-6 mil millones de especies incluyendo bacterias y organismos más complejos (plantas y animales), y porque nuestra tradición taxonómica que ronda tres siglos, apenas ha provisto nombres para dos millones de especies. El reto parece i...

LINK TO PDF: http://rdcu.be/wDfD This study explores the possible influence of human coastal development (before and after) and protected area status (within and outside a marine protected area, MPA) on composition, density, and maximum size of fish species and guilds, including mean trophic level of the fish community, in four localities of the Yu...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) conserve diversity and abundance of fish communities. According to the biotic resistance hypothesis, communities with higher diversity and abundance should resist invasions better. To test this idea, the presence of lionfish in two Caribbean MPAs was studied: Parque Nacional Guanahacabibes (PNG) in Cuba and Parque Naci...

Lionfish (Pterois volitans) invaded the Caribbean region with the potential to alter the composition and structure of native coral reef fish communities. The objective of this study was to analyze the diversity indices of these fish communities potentially affected by lionfish predation and to compare with pre-invasion data. The study was undertake...

Vieja hartwegi was described by Taylor and Miller in 1980 based on 45 juvenile and sub-adult specimens, but this species shows an enormous variation in coloration patterns during ontogenic development and between individuals. Additionally, morphological data have demonstrated the existence of two forms in V. hartwegi: the typical morph of a moderat...

Se ofrece en este breve estudio una reseña de cada una de las especies de peces confirmadas en las aguas interiores de Mayakobá, así como una discusión sobre las singularidad e importancia de este conjunto ictiológico.

In our opinion, no morphological or genetic data define popu- lations that have been referred to as the G. robusta complex in the lower Colorado River basin as members of more than one species (i.e., as populations on separate evolutionary trajectories; Simp- son 1961; Wiley 1981). Differences that have been described among localities, and that led...

Aquatic environments face a variety of threats in the Hondo River basin, Southeastern Yucatan Peninsula. Some of these impacts, like pollution by pesticides, may depend on land use and cover. Our objective was to assess the effect of land use/cover using a previously published index of biotic integrity (IBI), based on fishes and designed for shallo...

Since the restriction of Astyanax fasciatus to Brazil, most authors have assigned Central American and southern Mexican forms of Astyanax to A. aeneus. However, molecular studies support the hypothesis that more than one taxon is involved. With the aim of clarifying the number and status of species hidden behind the name ‘A. aeneus’, this revision...

In Caribbean reefs, the lionfish Pterois volitans is an invasive species that causes severe negative ecological effects, especially as this crepuscular predator consumes very diverse prey. Lionfish are not active during the day and stay in their refuges, sharing these spaces with various other fishes. The aim of this study is to determine which fis...

This study provides a history of the scientific study on the knowledge and use of biodiversity and its conservation, with emphasis on southern Mexico, where both natural diversity and social marginalization are maximized. Left to its own devices for centuries, in recent decades, Mexico’s southern region has suffered an impressive depredatory proces...

Members of the AFS/ASIH Joint Committee on the Names of Fishes has completed its review of information on morphological and genetic variation in the genus Gila in the lower Colorado River basin of Arizona and New Mexico (which includes the Little Colorado River, Bill Williams River, Gila River, Verde River, and Salt River drainages) and has conclud...

En este capítulo se analizan los cambios en la biodiversidad y sus consecuencias en el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas y sus servicios, incluida la relación entre su funcionamiento y los servicios ecosistémicos. Para ilustrar los patrones se presentan estudios de caso.

Este libro pretende brindar una mirada a los temas para los cuales el conocimiento sobre los ecosistemas de México es más amplio, así como aquellos críticos que no han sido abordados. El análisis abarca los factores que inciden en la biodiversidad, la estructura y el funcionamiento de estos ecosistemas, con especial énfasis en la relación que exist...

A phylogeny is presented for 34 species of Astyanax, 27 of them once included within A. aeneus or A. fasciatus in Central America and Mexico, based on 52 morphological characters (mostly osteological, but also pigmentation and meristics), with three outgroups. Monophyly is not supported for A. aeneus s. lat., as Brazilian species such as A. fasciat...

The Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans is an invasive species that was first recorded in the Guanahacabibes National Park (GNP), a marine protected area in western Cuba, in 2009. In order to determine the invasion progression of this species, we studied lionfish abundance, size, and diet at 6 sites in the GNP between 2010 and 2014. The species’...

We present evidence for the overlap of two species of clingfishes, mountain clingfish (Gobiesox fluviatilis) and Mexican clingfish (Gobiesox mexicanus), in the Cuitzmala River, state of Jalisco, western Mexico. In addition to documenting novel sites where these species can be found, we present a new maximum standard length for G. fluviatilis, 137.8...

The paper chronicles the invasion by armoured catfish (genus Pterygoplichthys: Siluriformes: Loricariidae) into the Hondo River, Mexico-Belize. Factors that the transport and establishment of the invader are discussed, with a genetic analysis to elucidate its origin, and a qualitative risk assessment of its further spread. The first specimen was re...

The foundations of the concept of biotic integrity are reviewed, and the indices of biotic integrity (IBI) are presented, with their advantages and drawbacks, as tools for environmental monitoring, especially in aquatic habitats, contrasting them to physico-chemical methods and simple diversity indices with the same aim. To apply an IBI, %rst a suY...

A principios de octubre de 2012 se fotografíó un pez diablo en la parte alta del río Bravo, Belice, tributario del río Hondo; en febrero de 2013 se capturó un ejemplar aguas abajo, en Blue Creek, ya muy cerca del cauce principal del Hondo. Esas noticias motivaron el presente proyecto. A fines de 2013 se detectó la invasión ya en aguas mexicanas, y...

Composition and structure of the Hondo River ichthyofauna were determined as a function of season and environment. Data were obtained by means of a harpoon during free diving. The species list was completed with other gear. Forty species were found, in 33 genera and 18 families. The richest family was Cichlidae, including an exotic. The environment...

We found a dead whale (Globicephalus macrorhynchus) whose probable cause of death was an internal injury produced by a 1m-long oilfish (Ruvettus pretiosus) that had bitten the whale´s stomach from the inside. This is the first record of an oilfish in Mexican Caribbean waters. KEY WORDS Marine mammals, mesopelagic fishes, feeding behavior, new reco...

African tilapias (Oreochromis spp.) occur in more than 100 countries outside of their native ranges and research on their invasions is largely lacking. We investigated spatiotemporal patterns of tilapia spread into 29 drainage basins in Belize and parts of Guatemala and Mexico, drawing on field data and interviews with fishermen. Habitat-suitabilit...

We present a population viability analysis for the metapopulation of the Antillean manatee Trichechus manatus manatus with the aim of predicting its tendencies under various hypothetical scenarios of conservation. Multiple individual Monte Carlo simulations of deterministic and stochastic factors were run on VORTEX 9.73 software. Populations were d...

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