Hydrosedimentological pulse in South America large river wetlands

APONTE AMAYA, F.; CASCO, S. L.; SANTOS ROCHA, A.C.; LOBATO-DE MAGALHÃES, T.; ERVIN, G.

Encuentro; Annual Meeting SWS; 2022

Despite the importance of wetlands associated with large rivers as a home for biodiversity, flood control, and source of clean water, knowledge about wetlands? natural balance and hydrologic connectivity is lacking for South American floodplains. Our research objectives were: (1) to determine spatial patterns of wetland distribution, (2) to identify the water dynamic in floodplains, and (3) to associate the water dynamic with wetland connectivity. We analyzed hydrosedimentological attributes with PULSE 2.0 software, using six subsets (3023.45 Km2) of large rivers in Argentina (Paraná River) and Colombia (Cauca and Magdalena rivers). The number of pulses, frequency, recurrence of limnophases and potamophases, and normalized vegetation index (NDVI) were calculated for five wetland types: a) floodplain wetland, b) riparian forest (dominated by Salix humboldtiana., willow, and Tessaria integrifolia., alder), c) flooded mixed forest, d) floodplain lake (island lake with a mix of riparian forest, flooded mixed forest, and floodplain areas), and e) swamp from Colombian rivers (locally known as La Rinconada and Ayapel). Overall, ?floodplain wetland? of the Paraná River had the highest pulse number, frequency, and recurrence of limnophases and potamophases among all wetland types. The ?floodplain wetland? has higher than other landscape units (213 values of frequency, and 10 times of recurrence), while ?flooded mixed forest? exhibited the highest amplitude and tension values (284 days and 91.4 m). We registered elasticity quotient coefficients of 1.2 for the floodplain wetland, 3.2 floodplain lakes (Paraná River), 1.1 to Ayapel swamp (Cauca River), and 1.3 to La Rinconada swamp (Magdalena River