128 research outputs found
Vulnerability of the biota in riverine and seasonally flooded habitats to damming of Amazonian rivers [in press]
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Relating pollen representation to an evolving Amazonian landscape between the last glacial maximum and late Holocene
In contrast to temperate regions, relationships between basin characteristics (e.g. type/size) and fossil pollen archives have received little attention in Amazonia. Here, we compare fossil pollen records of a small palm swamp (Cuatro Vientos; CV) and a nearby large lake (Laguna Chaplin; LCH) in Bolivian Amazonia, demonstrating that palm swamps can yield Quaternary pollen archives recording the history of terrestrial vegetation beyond the basin margin, rather than merely a history of localized swamp vegetation dynamics. The pollen assemblages from these two contrasting basins display remarkable agreement throughout their late Quaternary history, indicating past drier climates supported savanna landscape during the last glacial maximum (LGM; 24,000-18,000 cal yr BP) and savanna/semi-deciduous forest mosaic during the middle Holocene (7000-4750 cal yr BP) at both regional (inferred from LCH) and local (inferred from CV) spatial scales. Additionally, the local-scale catchment of CV and the basin's proximity to the riverine forests of the RÃo Paraguá enables exploration of the extent of gallery/riverine forests during the LGM and middle Holocene. We show that, between 24,000-4000 cal yr BP, riverine/gallery rainforests were substantially reduced compared with present, challenging the hypothesis that gallery rainforests were important refugia for rainforest species during the drier LGM and middle Holocene
Trans-Amazon Drilling Project (TADP): origins and evolution of the forests, climate, and hydrology of the South American tropics
This article presents the scientific rationale for an ambitious ICDP drilling project to continuously sample Late Cretaceous to modern sediment in four different sedimentary basins that transect the equatorial Amazon of Brazil, from the Andean foreland to the Atlantic Ocean. The goals of this project are to document the evolution of plant biodiversity in the Amazon forests and to relate biotic diversification to changes in the physical environment, including climate, tectonism, and the surface landscape. These goals require long sedimentary records from each of the major sedimentary basins across the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, which can only be obtained by drilling because of the scarcity of Cenozoic outcrops. The proposed drilling will provide the first long, nearly continuous regional records of the Cenozoic history of the forests, their plant diversity, and the associated changes in climate and environment. It also will address fundamental questions about landscape evolution, including the history of Andean uplift and erosion as recorded in Andean foreland basins and the development of west-to-east hydrologic continuity between the Andes, the Amazon lowlands, and the equatorial Atlantic. Because many modern rivers of the Amazon basin flow along the major axes of the old sedimentary basins, we plan to locate drill sites on the margin of large rivers and to access the targeted drill sites by navigation along these rivers
Analysis of tectonic-controlled fluvial morphology and sedimentary processes of the western Amazon Basin: an approach using satellite images and digital elevation model
Late quaternary dynamics in the Madeira river basin, southern Amazonia (Brazil), as revealed by paleomorphological analysis
Flood pulse and spatial dynamics of mercury in sediments in Puruzinho lake, Brazilian Amazon
Environmental changes in the western Amazônia: morphological framework, geochemistry, palynology and radiocarbon dating data
A New Species of River Dolphin from Brazil or:How Little Do We Know Our Biodiversity
True river dolphins are some of the rarest and most endangered of all vertebrates. They comprise relict evolutionary lineages of high taxonomic distinctness and conservation value, but are afforded little protection. We report the discovery of a new species of a river dolphin from the Araguaia River basin of Brazil, the first such discovery in nearly 100 years. The species is diagnosable by a series of molecular and morphological characters and diverged from its Amazonian sister taxon 2.08 million years ago. The estimated time of divergence corresponds to the separation of the Araguaia-Tocantins basin from the Amazon basin. This discovery highlights the immensity of the deficit in our knowledge of Neotropical biodiversity, as well as vulnerability of biodiversity to anthropogenic actions in an increasingly threatened landscape. We anticipate that this study will provide an impetus for the taxonomic and conservation reanalysis of other taxa shared between the Araguaia and Amazon aquatic ecosystems, as well as stimulate historical biogeographical analyses of the two basins
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