Our latest paper, published this week in the journal Ecology and Evolution, describes how we detected the ‘signature’ of disturbance on tropical freshwater fish communities, using the streams of Trinidad’s Northern Range as a model system.
“Liming” is a popular pastime on the Caribbean islands of Trinidad & Tobago. It describes the act of relaxing with friends and family – usually accompanied by food, drink and loud music. The island’s many picturesque streams are favourite locations for liming.
Although it is a positive thing that people are enjoying and connecting with the natural environment, it also means that certain stretches of river are exposed to very high levels of recreational use. In this study we sampled 8 pairs of sites in the Northern Range of Trinidad, multiple times over a 2 year period; each matched pair of sites consisted of one well-known liming spot and a nearby, less-disturbed, site.