Beneficial microbes and fishes of the Amazon: a story of co-adaptation to the extreme conditions of the most biodiverse freshwater ecosystem on Earth, the black waters of the Amazon basin

The Earth’s richest freshwater fish fauna is found in the Brazilian Amazon basin. This resource represents the primary protein source for the “ribeirinhos”: the populations of native Brazilian fisherman living in the upper Amazon. The black waters of the Amazon River are poor in nutrient, ion, oxygen and are acidified by humic acids from surrounding submerged forest vegetation (acidic pH of 3.8 – 5.0). We aim to understand how Amazonian fishes manage to survive in such an extreme environment. We will explore the microbial communities associated with Amazonian black water fishes and we will test whether beneficial microbes living on the fish may play essential roles in the adaptation to these environments. We expect to achieve the following objectives:
1. Characterize the species of bacteria associated to Amazonian black water fishes. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Nicolas Derome

Student:

Partner:

National Institute of Amazonian Research

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

Université Laval

Program: