CO-OCCURRENCE OF FISH SPECIES ON AN IMPACTED TRANSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE SOUTHERN COAST OF BRAZIL

Biological communities are influenced by interactions among species and their environment, impacting species richness and composition over time. Understanding ecological patterns of species occurrence and distribution is crucial for elucidating the mechanisms driving community assembly. In this study, co-occurrence patterns of fish species in a transitional aquatic environment affected by human activities were investigated to determine if observed patterns differ from random expectations. The fish were collected from Saco dos Limões cove following anthropogenic impacts caused by highway construction. The findings suggest that fish community assembly in the area generally mirrors randomly generated patterns, indicating that competitive interactions may not be the primary drivers of community structure. Instead, abiotic factors such as environmental heterogeneity and resource availability likely play significant roles in shaping fish assemblages. Although some matrices showed deviations from random processes, these findings may be attributed to Type I Error, underscoring the importance of considering environmental characteristics when analyzing species co-occurrence patterns. Overall, the study underscores the resilience of fish assemblages in transitional waters and their ability to maintain functional integrity despite anthropogenic disturbances.