The Future of Amazonian Aquatic Biota

The aquatic habitats of the Amazon region are subject to natural daily and seasonal variations in the physico-chemical properties of the water. The organisms that inhabit these habitats have developed adaptations to cope with these natural events. However, human-induced environmental changes are threatening ecosystems and affecting biodiversity at all levels of biological organization by causing drastic changes in climatic conditions in a shorter period of time, without giving organisms time to adapt. In this sense, the book addresses the future of aquatic organisms in the Amazon, including bacterial symbionts, insects, crustaceans, fish, plants, and amphibians, and provides an overview of what the future of biodiversity in the Amazon will look like, both in terms of organisms' adaptations to natural changes and in terms of vulnerability and responses to human impacts, highlighting possible mechanisms to minimize the expected impacts. The book also provides a brief overview of the risks that climate change poses to livestock, strategies for the sustainable use of species in the Amazon region and the impact of climate change on fish diseases.

Samara Silva de Souza, Ph.D. in Genetics, Conservation and Evolutionary Biology (INPA), studies aquatic toxicology with a focus on the effects of contaminants such as hydrocarbons and pesticides and the combination with physical-chemical factors in water on the biological responses of fish, including molecular biology, oxidative stress and antioxidant mechanisms.

Susana Braz-Mota, PhD in Biology, Freshwater Biology and Inland Fisheries (INPA), is an expert in the physiological effects of metals, nanoparticles, herbicides and hydrocarbons on mortality, free radical production, antioxidant defense, oxidative stress and morphological changes of aquatic organisms. She also studies the mitochondrial biochemical mechanisms of respiration in fish exposed to high temperature and hypoxia.

Adalberto Val is a leading expert in the field of Amazonian fish biology. He has advised over 120 students and published over 220 articles. His books include Fishes of the Amazon and Their Environment, published by Springer. He has served as General Director of INPA (2006-2014) and has been coordinating the ADAPTA project since 2009. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, a member of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and an awardee of the Gran Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil).