Raphael Ligeiro

• Doctor of Ecology
• Professor (Associate) at Federal University of Para

1. Lotic ecosystems can be studied on several spatial scales, and usually show high heterogeneity at all of them in terms of biological and environmental characteristics. Understanding and predicting the taxonomic composition of biological communities is challenging and compounded by the problem of scale. Additive diversity partitioning is a tool t...

Most studies dealing with the use of ecological indicators and other applied ecological research rely on some definition or concept of what constitutes least-, intermediate- and most-disturbed condition. Currently, most rigorous methodologies designed to define those conditions are suited to large spatial extents (nations, ecoregions) and many site...

The effects of anthropogenic disturbance on multiple facets of biodiversity are poorly understood. In this study, we worked with the hypothesis that anthropogenic disturbances affect the relationship between environmental heterogeneity (EH) and biodiversity. We used a model selection approach to test three predictions. P1: The greater the level of...

Identifying the hierarchical spatial levels that show the greatest dissimilarities between communities and how these patterns are generated is essential to provide insights into the monitoring and protection of biodiversity. In this study, we additively partitioned diversity of macroinvertebrates into alpha, beta, and gamma diversity across multipl...

Context Global change, including land-use change and habitat degradation, has led to a decline in biodiversity, more so in freshwater than in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the research on freshwaters lags behind terrestrial and marine studies, highlighting the need for innovative approaches to comprehend freshwater biodiversity. Objectives We i...

Biological communities have their biodiversity patterns affected by environmental, spatial, and biogeographic factors that vary from taxa to taxa, and often between life stages. This is especially true when there are differences in the habitat the species use in each of them. Individuals of the insect order Trichoptera are mostly aquatic in their l...

The organisms of the infraorder Nepomorpha (Heteroptera) present complex habitat requirements in headwater streams, usually being related to local substrate conditions. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated how the diversity of Nepomorpha responded to a wide gradient of habitat and ecological conditions. We tested two hypotheses: (1) local substra...

estuaries using biotic indicators. We aimed (1) to describe the current landscape of the scientific production on the topic; (2) to characterize the most productive/influential authorships and the organization of scientific collaboration; (3) to analyze the most used biotic integrity indices, metrics and methods. After the survey process, separatio...

Graphical abstract Highlights d Ecological metadata were compiled for 7,694 sites across the Brazilian Amazon d Accessibility and proximity to research facilities influenced research probability d Knowledge gaps are greater in uplands than in wetlands and aquatic habitats d Undersampled areas overlap predicted hotspots of climate change and defores...

Chalcopteryx rutilans Rambur, 1842 (Polythoridae, Odonata) is a species widely distributed in central Amazonia. Due to its sensitivity to environmental changes, it is a bioindicator species used to evaluate the environmental conditions of streams in federally protected areas. By sequencing C. rutilans mitogenome, we report the first whole mitogenom...

Hyphessobrycon heterorhabdus (Ulrey, 1894), popularly known as ‘Flag Tetra’ in English speaking countries, belongs to the genus Hyphessobrycon of the family Characidae, and is widely present in the eastern Amazon basin. Here, using Illumina sequencing, we report the complete mitogenome sequence of H. heterorhabdus. Overall, the mitogenome has 17,02...

The Amazon forests are under threat from multiple human land uses, but the effect of the different types of land uses on environmental heterogeneity and the α- and β-diversity of aquatic insects remains unclear. We studied how habitat features of streams and aquatic insect diversity in the orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (hereafte...

Motivation Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater ecosystem health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in macr...

Riverscape connectivity is a critically important component determining the ecological condition of lotic ecosystems. We evaluated changes in fish assemblages caused by the loss of connectivity by mine tailings storage dams (TSDs), hypothesizing that headwater fish assemblages are restructured by TSDs located downstream, even though the upstream ha...

Motivation: Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are

Motivation: Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater ecosystem health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in mac...

The determination of the processes that act in the assembly of the communities is a theme of growing interest among ecologists. Different processes (e.g., environmental filtering and biotic interactions) can shape the structure of communities depending on the spatial scale analyzed. In this study, we partitioned the functional and taxonomic diversi...

Despite advances in recent years, there remains a lack of information on the habitat specificity of many aquatic insects, especially for the most recently described taxa and for very diverse regions such as the Amazon. This study evaluates the relationship between niche breadth and habitat specificity of aquatic insects in 219 streams. Local enviro...

The Mariana disaster, resulting from the rupture of the Fundão tailings storage facility (TSF) in 2015, was a large‐scale environmental disaster that drastically affected the entire channel of the Rio Doce, southeastern Brazil. The disaster produced substantial channel siltation, increased turbidity, riparian damage and a massive fish kill. However...

Os estudos relacionados à Ecologia de Organismos Bentônicos dedicam-se aos organismos que habitam o sedimento e substratos de fundo, consolidados ou não, de ecossistemas aquáticos continentais, tais como rios, riachos de cabeceira, lagos e reservatórios. Este artigo apresenta uma síntese sobre a importante contribuição do Prof. Francisco de Assis E...

In this study, through a rapid assessment, we evaluated differences in richness, abundance, species composition and beta diversity of Euglossini bees in preserved areas and areas altered by riverine human populations in the Caxiuanã National Forest (northern Amazon). Our hypotheses were: i) the species richness, diversity, abundance and composition...

We evaluated the beta diversity patterns of aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages at two spatial scales in streams in the Eastern Amazon, as well as tested whether environmental and spatial factors affected these assemblage patterns differently for non-flying (i.e., shrimps) and flying (i.e., insects) macroinvertebrate groups. Fifteen streams were...

The conversion of riparian vegetation into monocultures alters the input of allochthonous energy and the heterotrophy of streams. Here, we aimed to assess the implication of leaf litter inputs from plant species of agricultural importance on decomposition in Amazonian streams. We hypothesized that decomposition is low in litter with high concentrat...

Separating species in terms of dispersal capacity can be useful to understand how local and regional factors affect the distribution of organisms in metacommunities. In this study, we sought to unravel how the characteristics of local habitats and spatial distances structure fish communities in Amazonian streams. We hypothesized that fishes classif...

Estuarine environmental gradients are strong drivers structuring aquatic metacommunities and may cause an orderly loss or gain of species across sites. Locations with milder environmental conditions may allow the establishment of different species with different functional traits, while stressful sites may restrict the occurrence of a reduced set o...

The number of disasters involving tailings storage facilities has increased in Brazil. Only in the last six years, there have been six disasters involving this type of structure. Despite the vast socio-environmental impacts, little has been done to mitigate the damage caused. The negligence of mining companies and the lack of efficient management a...

Changes in environmental characteristics can affect habitat use by birds, impacting the number of individuals, number of species, and changing species composition and functional structure of assemblages. Metrics that evaluate the functional structure of biological assemblages constitute a complementary tool to the traditional taxonomic approach, be...

Stream site classification is a fundamental step in defining reference conditions for freshwater bioassessments globally. Landscape regionalisation and stream typology approaches have both been used to determine classes that reduce inherent environmental variation and to show classes with ecological meaning. We evaluated the applicability of ecoreg...

Atypical drought events have increasingly occurred in Brazil over the last years due to global climate changes. However, their consequences on aquatic biota in reservoirs are poorly known. We tested the hypothesis that macroinvertebrate communities are negatively affected by atypical drought events, given the sensitivity of many taxa to environment...

Areas with minimal anthropogenic influences are frequently used as reference sites and represent the best ecological state available in a region. Streams in such conditions are necessary for evaluating the conservation status of aquatic ecosystems of a region and to monitor them, taking natural environmental variability into consideration. Therefor...

This study investigated the effects of activities carried out by traditional populations on aquatic ecosystems using the assemblages of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera insect orders, and identified fluvial habitat characteristics modified by the disturbances. We surveyed two groups of streams—17 streams representing control conditions (C...

Considering the increasing importance of analysing spatial structure in ecological studies, the aims of the present study were to test whether fluvial distances and environmental factors are important drivers of the β-diversity of stream fish assemblages, and whether β-diversity is different in distinct hydrological periods. Specimens were sampled...

Phlebotomines (Diptera: Psychodidae) are vectors of several etiological agents of human and animal diseases, including protozoans of the gender Leishmania Precarious socioeconomic conditions and uncontrolled population growth directly influence the transmission risk of parasites and the urbanization of vector species, previously restricted to wild...

Members of the International Fisheries Section of the American Fisheries Society are an extremely diverse group, representing many fisheries disciplines and nations. We have common interests in the biology, management, and conservation of fisheries on a global scale and promote the interaction of fisheries and aquatic science professionals worldwid...

Taxonomic richness is one of the most important measures of biological diversity in ecological studies, including those with stream macroinvertebrates. However, it is impractical to measure the true richness of any site directly by sampling. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of sampling effort on estimates of macroinvertebrate family and Eph...

The rupestrian grasslands in Minas Gerais State comprise headwaters of important watersheds that drainages for millions citizens in over 400 cities in São Francisco and Doce river basins. The human activities in the rupestrian grasslands include domestic supply, agriculture, forestry, cattle raising, industry, and mineral extraction. This chapter a...

Macroinvertebrados Aquáticos como Bioindicadores no Processo de Licenciamento Ambiental no Brasil RESUMO-Licenciamento ambiental no Brasil é um procedimento com vários níveis e etapas, concebido como ferramenta preventiva aos potenciais danos ambientais causados pela implantação de empreendimentos. Embora este procedimento seja obrigatório desde me...

A definição de Condições de Referência visa quantificar a variabilidade natural de características ambientais e biológicas de ecossistemas minimamente perturbados por ações antrópicas. A ausência de informações sobre padrões ambientais e ecológicos em riachos tropicais em Condições de Referência tem sido um dos principais limitantes ao diagnóstico...

The hypotheses that beta diversity should increase with decreasing latitude and increase with spatial extent of a region have rarely been tested based on a comparative analysis of multiple datasets, and no such study has focused on stream insects. We first assessed how well variability in beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities is predicted...

Macroinvertebrates are important for processing leaf detritus in temperate streams, but studies about their role in tropical streams often present conflicting results. Via digestive tract analyses, we assessed the diets of Phylloicus sp. larvae (Trichoptera: Calamoceratidae), collected from streams of two southeastern Brazil river basins (Araguari,...

The hypotheses that beta diversity should increase with decreasing latitude and increase with spatial extent of a region have rarely been tested based on a comparative analysis of multiple datasets, and no such study has focused on stream insects. We first assessed how well variability in beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities is predicted...

The hypotheses that beta diversity should increase with decreasing latitude and increase with spatial extent of a region have rarely been tested based on a comparative analysis of multiple datasets, and no such study has focused on stream insects. We first assessed how well variability in beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities is predicted...

The hypotheses that beta diversity should increase with decreasing latitude and increase with spatial extent of a region have rarely been tested based on a comparative analysis of multiple datasets, and no such study has focused on stream insects. We first assessed how well variability in beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities is predicted...

The hypotheses that beta diversity should increase with decreasing latitude and increase with spatial extent of a region have rarely been tested based on a comparative analysis of multiple datasets, and no such study has focused on stream insects. We first assessed how well variability in beta diversity of stream insect metacommunities is predicted...

Resumo – Para a conservação de riachos de cabeceira é fundamental o entendimento das interações de fatores ambientais (p.ex., habitats físicos e composição química da água) com organismos aquáticos. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar se fatores ambientais influenciam a riqueza taxonômica de assembleias de Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera e Trichoptera (E...

Resumo – Ecossistemas aquáticos são diretamente influenciados por impactos antrópicos oriundos do meio terrestre na região de entorno, o que torna a biota aquática um importante instrumento de monitoramento ambiental. Macroinvertebrados bentônicos são amplamente utilizados em programas de biomonitoramento de recursos hídricos, principalmente as ass...

Landscape and site-scale data analyses aid the interpretation of biological data and thereby help us develop more cost-effective natural resource management strategies. Our study focused on environmental influences on stream assemblages and we evaluated how three classes of environmental variables (geophysical landscape, land use and cover, and sit...

An understanding of the interactions among local environmental factors (e.g., physical habitat and water quality) and aquatic assemblages is essential to conserve biodiversity in tropical and subtropical headwater streams. We evaluated the relative importance of multiple physical and chemical habitat variables that influence the richness of Ephemer...

Landscape and site-scale data analyses aid the interpretation of biological data and thereby help us develop more cost-effective natural resource management strategies. Our study focused on environmental influences on stream assemblages and we evaluated how three classes of environmental variables (geophysical landscape, land use and cover, and sit...

Mesohabitat components such as substrate and surface flow types are intimately related to benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in streams. Visual assessments of the distribution of these components provide a means of evaluating physical habitat heterogeneity and aid biodiversity surveys and monitoring. We determined the degree to which stream site...

Landscape and site­scale data analyses aid the interpretation of biological data and thereby help us develop more cost­effective natural resource management strategies. We evaluated how three classes of environmental variables (landscape, land/cover, and site habitat) influence fish and macroinvertebrate assemblage richness in the Brasilian savanna...

Subsampling has been widely applied in the laboratory to process freshwater macroinvertebrate samples. Currently, many governmental agencies and research groups apply the fixed-count approach, targeting a number of individuals per sample, and at the same time keeping track of the number of quadrats (fraction of the sample) processed. However, fixed...

(Title - Efficient management of watersheds in Brazil: difficulties and perspectives of solutions)

Protocolos de avaliação ecológica rápida são ferramentas importantes para treinamento de pós-graduandos e levantamento de informações em áreas pouco conhecidas. O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar um levantamento de qualidade de água e diversidade de macroinvertebrados bentônicos em duas sub-bacias em uma área protegida. Atividades de campo, proce...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influences of detritus from the leaves of different species, and of exposure time on invertebrate colonization of leaves in a shaded Cerrado stream. We hypothesized that the exposure time is the main factor that influences the colonization of leaves by invertebrates. We used leaves of five tree specie...

We evaluate the composition and structure of invertebrate assemblages during leaf breakdown of five native tree species (Myrcia guyanensis, Ocotea sp., Miconia chartacea, Protium brasiliense and Protium heptaphyllum) and a mixture of them in a headwater stream, Southeastern Brazil. Coarse mesh litter bags were used over a 120-day period. P. heptaph...