Description
This publication, under the responsibility of the Kreen Foundation, documents the ichthyological sampling events carried out in the Meullín-Puye Nature Sanctuary (SNMP) and nearby areas. The study area, located in the Cuervo River basin, Aysén Region, has records from 1997 to 2023, including 1375 fish occurrences, with emphasis on the native species Galaxias platei. The data includes length and weight and, when available, information on water quality.
The SNMP is a private protected area located in the Cuervo River basin in the Aysén region. In the 1990s, it was proposed to build a hydroelectric plant as part of the Alumysa project. When this project was canceled, the idea of building a hydroelectric plant continued in the hands of Energía Austral. After the cancelation of the hydroelectric projects, the land was sold and purchased by the Kreen Foundation for a conservation. Finally, on April 21, 2022, the Meullín-Puye Nature Sanctuary was officially declared.
The main threats identified to the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems in Patagonia are climate change, invasive alien species, diseases, harmful algal blooms, and alterations to the water network (Reid et al. 2021). One of the most important and unique features of the SNMP is its water network, which flows pristine from the glaciers to the fjord. In the entire upper part of this network (from about 3 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the fjord), there is no presence of salmonids or Didymosphenia geminata, invasive species that have drastically modified the freshwater ecosystems of the Patagonian Aysén in recent decades. The lake systems found within the protected area correspond to glacial lakes of oligotrophic type; Lake Yulton and Lake Meullín. The fish assemblage in the water systems of the upper part of the basin is composed exclusively of the Puye gigante —Galaxias platei— a species endemic to Chilean and Argentine Patagonia (Cussac et al. 2004). This species is particularly vulnerable to salmonid invasion, so its conservation in the last areas free of salmonids is key (Ortiz-Sandoval et al. 2017), and is therefore a central conservation objective of the project.
Fundación Kreen conducted a new biological baseline with the goal of updating the old baselines by 2021. In addition, as part of the management of the protected area, regular monitoring is carried out at various points in and around the reserve. During the processing of the hydroelectric projects in the basin, a large amount of environmental information was collected as part of the environmental impact assessments. The corresponding baseline data prior to Kreen's administration can be found on the website of the Environmental Evaluation Service (https://www.sea.gob.cl/) under the project names “Alumysa” and “Central Hidroeléctrica Río Cuervo”.
It is important to note that water quality data, available for certain events, can be readily accessed within the original archive. This data is not displayed on the GBIF platform due to its limitations in supporting extension data for events.
We thank Photosintesis consultants, specifically José Gerstle and Patricio Bahamondes, for their invaluable support in data collection during the 2021 expedition. Additionally, we extend our thanks to researchers Nicole Colin and Konrad Gorski from Universidad Austral for their participation in the 2022 expedition. We also wish to acknowledge Mauricio Aguayo, a researcher from Universidad de Concepción, for his support during the 2023 expedition.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 90 records.
3 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Fundación Kreen. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 385f2237-c729-4eff-ba78-36a6113a57bf. Fundación Kreen publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Chile.
Keywords
Samplingevent; Galaxias; conservation; private protected area; area privada protegida; santuario de la naturaleza; Observation
Contacts
- User
- Project manager
- José Miguel Carrera 257
Geographic Coverage
The Meullín-Puye Nature Sanctuary (located at 45°08'21" South latitude and 72°58'08" West longitude) and the surrounding Tabo River Basin (located at approximately 45°15'34.0452'' South latitude and 72°48'10.2744'' West longitude) as the area of influence.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-90, -180], North East [90, 180] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
N/A
| Kingdom | Animalia |
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Sampling Methods
Ichthyofauna sampling description: Describe the different methods used (electrofishing, nets and longline). o 1997 – 2008: Please find the corresponding information in the documents on the web page of the Environmental Evaluation Service (https://www.sea.gob.cl/) under the project names “Alumysa” and “Central Hidroeléctrica Río Cuervo”. o 2021: Electrofishing: This fishing technique was carried out with Samus Model 1000G portable electrofishing equipment and jigs. This type of fishing is based on the generation of an electric field by submerging two electrodes (anode and cathode) powered by the fishing equipment. The fish swim involuntarily towards the anode (positive pole) and at a certain distance suffer from electrotaxia, swim towards the operator and finally enter a state of electronarcosis, which renders the individual immobile due to muscular contractions (Elosegi 2009), at which point they can be captured. To standardize captures, an area of approximately 100 m² was walked for 10 minutes along the riverbank associated with each sampling site. Longlines: A longline consists of a nylon line with hooks distributed longitudinally and baited. One longline was set with 100 barbless hooks and bait at each non-wadeable depth sampling site. These lines were set from a boat and left in place for 12 consecutive hours at night to be removed the next morning. o 2022 and 2023: Fish were caught with a seine type net, mainly in the lakeshore habitats and at points in the fjord (where electric fishing cannot be used due to high conductivity). In the lotic water systems (e.g. estuaries), catches were made with electrofishing (SAMU model). A maximum of 20 fish were collected at each sampling site. Water quality sampling: sampling of basic water quality parameters. o 1997 – 2008: Please find the corresponding information in the documents on the web page of the Environmental Evaluation Service (https://www.sea.gob.cl/) under the project names “Alumysa” and “Central Hidroeléctrica Río Cuervo”. o 2021: The parameters measured insitu related to water quality where electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, redox potential, pH and temperature. The parameters were measured with a MultiLine® Multi 3630 IDS WTW portable multiparameter monitor. o 2022 and 2023: The parameters measured insitu related to water quality where electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature. The parameters were measured with a HANNA HI 98194 multiparameter probe.
| Study Extent | The Meullín-Puye Nature Sanctuary (located at 45°08'21" South latitude and 72°58'08" West longitude) and the surrounding Tabo River Basin (located at approximately 45°15'34.0452'' South latitude and 72°48'10.2744'' West longitude) as the area of influence. The published sampling events span from 1997 to 2023. |
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Method step description:
- Data from 1997 to 2008 were extracted from the environmental impact studies conducted by previous projects. Please find this information on the Environmental Evaluation Service website (https://www.sea.gob.cl/) under the project names "Alumysa" and "Central Hidroeléctrica Río Cuervo." Data from 2021 to 2023 were collected by members of the Fundación Kreen team and directly recorded in accordance with the DWC standard.
Bibliographic Citations
- Cussac, V., Ortubay, S., Iglesias, G., Milano, D., Lattuca, M. E., Barriga, J. P., ... & Gross, M. (2004). The distribution of South American galaxiid fishes: the role of biological traits and post‐glacial history. Journal of Biogeography, 31(1), 103-121.
- Ortiz-Sandoval, J., Górski, K., Sobenes, C., González, J., Manosalva, A., Elgueta, A., & Habit, E. (2017). Invasive trout affect trophic ecology of Galaxias platei in Patagonian lakes. Hydrobiologia, 790(1), 201-212.
- Reid, B., Astorga, A., Madriz, I., & y Correa, C. (2021). Estado del conocimiento y conservación de los ecosistemas dulceacuícolas de la Patagonia occidental austral. In J. C. Castilla, J. J. Armesto y & M. J. Martínez-Harms (Eds.), Conservación en la Patagonia chilena: evaluación del conocimiento, oportunidades y desafíos (pp. 429–471). Santiago, Chile: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile.
- Elosegi, A. (Ed.). (2009). Conceptos y técnicas en ecología fluvial. Fundación BBVa.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | 385f2237-c729-4eff-ba78-36a6113a57bf |
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| https://gbif-chile.mma.gob.cl/ipt/resource?r=ictio_fk |