Richness and functional ecology of freshwater ichthyofauna at the Monterrey Metropolitan Zone, Nuevo León.

Authors: Néstor Méndez, María Zapiain, Erick González, Hiram Barquin

Year: 2025

Abstract

The Monterrey Metropolitan Zone (MMZ) in the state of Nuevo León faces a severe water crisis that impacts its water bodies. These ecosystems host freshwater fish that provide key ecosystem services, but their diversity and functionality are threatened by habitat alteration and the introduction of exotic species. Given the lack of information, the study proposes using the functional diversity approach, which examines the aspects of the ecological roles of species in their environment, and quantify the traits of the fish and evaluate their ecological roles in this anthropized environment. This approach is useful for understanding the response of communities to disturbances, predicting invasions, and designing conservation strategies. It is hypothesized that there are differences in ecological functionalities among the sites within the MMZ. The main objective is to evaluate this functional ecology based on the characterization of taxonomy, geometric morphometric analysis, functional attributes, and dispersion. Understanding the diversity and ecological functions of fishes in the MMZ is essential to assess the services they provide to ecosystems and to establishing the health of the regions waters bodies.