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Diversity and Parasitic Load of Freshwater Fish of the Shipstern Peninsula, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize, Central America from Recent Collections and Historical Archives
Version 1
: Received: 6 December 2022 / Approved: 7 December 2022 / Online: 7 December 2022 (13:50:53 CET)
How to cite:
Ram, J.; Vasquez, A.; Trejo-Martinez, J. Diversity and Parasitic Load of Freshwater Fish of the Shipstern Peninsula, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize, Central America from Recent Collections and Historical Archives. Preprints2022, 2022120133. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202212.0133.v1
Ram, J.; Vasquez, A.; Trejo-Martinez, J. Diversity and Parasitic Load of Freshwater Fish of the Shipstern Peninsula, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize, Central America from Recent Collections and Historical Archives. Preprints 2022, 2022120133. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202212.0133.v1
Ram, J.; Vasquez, A.; Trejo-Martinez, J. Diversity and Parasitic Load of Freshwater Fish of the Shipstern Peninsula, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize, Central America from Recent Collections and Historical Archives. Preprints2022, 2022120133. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202212.0133.v1
APA Style
Ram, J., Vasquez, A., & Trejo-Martinez, J. (2022). Diversity and Parasitic Load of Freshwater Fish of the Shipstern Peninsula, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize, Central America from Recent Collections and Historical Archives. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202212.0133.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Ram, J., Adrian Vasquez and Jorge Trejo-Martinez. 2022 "Diversity and Parasitic Load of Freshwater Fish of the Shipstern Peninsula, Sarteneja, Corozal District, Belize, Central America from Recent Collections and Historical Archives" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202212.0133.v1
Abstract
: Belize is located within the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot and is an important link between critical biodiverse habitats in Central America. Despite considerable research on biodiversity in marine environments of Belize, research in freshwater environments is limited, with the most recent checklists having been published in obscure, mostly unavailable references more than 20 years ago.Belize is currently experiencing serious degradation of some of its major freshwater resources such as the New River in the northern part of the country. These unique habitats are increasingly threatened by agro-urban development, invasive species and erratic climatic events. The economically important barrier coral reef is also experiencing impacts from the degraded freshwater watersheds that empty into the sea near the reefs. This work addresses the paucity of documentation of the freshwater fishes of Belize, particularly for the Shipstern Peninsula area. The Shipstern Peninsula is a unique region in northern Belize, adjacent to the southern border of Mexico and the northeastern end of the Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. This paper reports on fish collected in 2015, with comparisons to historical data in surveys published in 1990, 1993, and 1997. We report on 12 genera/species collected in 2015 and provide molecular barcode data on several, which was not available in previous publications. Floridichthys polyommus, a new observation for the Shipstern Lagoon, and Dajaus monticola, a revised name and new observation for the Inland Blue Hole,were confirmed by barcodes. This update is vital to the continued management of freshwater environments in Belize, and especially for the Shipstern Peninsula and its important habitats held in trust for perpetuity for the Belizean people.
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
