Hydrologic, Morphologic and Ecologic Links in Large South-American Rivers

BLETTLER, M.C.M

Columbus, OH

Conferencia; Conference in the frame of the Fall Semester lecture-seminar at School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR), Ohio State University (OSU).; 2012

School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR)

Human civilization was born on a river bank. Freshwater ecosystems provide water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, transport, electricity generation, recreation and habitat for diverse biodiversity. Freshwater fauna and flora are an important source of food, income and livelihood, particularly in large rivers. In this sense, rivers captured the interest of many naturalists and scientists around the world. They have been studied considering many riverine issues from natural and human sciences, taking into account their ecological and social problems and potential solutions. However, this conference is not a detailed analysis of threats to large rivers, nor, in light of insufficient data and time, does it provide a fully quantitative description of each large river in South-America. Instead, it captures the very complex and sensitive ecological, hydrological and morphological relationships in the context of the climate change, which threaten the integrity of major watersheds. Drawing from published literature, research´s results and field expertise, this lecture offers an overview of the natural behavior of some large South-American rivers, focusing analysis on a large watershed, shared by five countries, with high ecological importance and affecting large human populations: Paraná River basin. This is a large and very dynamic river characterized by several river-floodplain interactions due to the flood/flow pulse regime. In addition, specific examples of fauna and flora communities, deeply analyzed, are considered herein in order to be aware of the extreme complexity and fragility of this kind of ecosystems. The premise of this review is that only understanding the link between physical environment and biodiversity we should be able to improve river management techniques and develop new river rehabilitation projects.