Stand dynamics of the drought-affected floodplain forests of Araguaia River, Brazilian Amazon

Homeier, Jürgen; Kurzatkowski, Dariusz; Leuschner, Christoph

doi:10.1186/s40663-017-0097-8

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…Our results suggest that tree mortality caused by the combination of extreme rainfall/river discharge associated with damming is substantially higher than average mortality in floodplain forests (eg. Homeier, Kurzatkowski, & Leuschner, ; Nebel, Kvist, Vanclay, & Vidaurre, ). Even during unusually severe flooding seasons, tree mortality in tropical riparian forests seems to be lower than detected here, probably because flooding intensity is within species flooding tolerance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction between extreme weather events and mega‐dams increases tree mortality and alters functional status of Amazonian forests

Moser

Simon

Medeiros

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Forest responses to changes in drought frequency is a critical matter for the future of Amazon forests under climate change, but equally important is the much less studied response to large floods, which may also increase tree mortality and change forest functionality. Further, forest vulnerability to flood is being exacerbated by large hydroelectric dams on Amazon rivers that put upland environments not adapted to flood at unique risk.2. To address this critical knowledge gap, we evaluated the effects of the extreme 2014 rainfall coupled with the newly constructed Jirau hydroelectric dam on tree survival and forest functionality, in the upper Madeira River basin. We used surveys of campinarana white-sand forests (stems >1 cm in seven 1 ha plots) conducted before and after the extreme flood to test trait-based ecological theory predictions of the impact of flood on overall community function.3. We found that flooding increased mortality by nearly five-fold (from 3.2% to 15.1%), mostly in smaller trees. This large mortality induced significant and consistent shifts in community function, towards species with conservative life strategies: direct comparison of trait differences between surviving and dying trees showed that survivors had smaller, high density stomata, and higher leaf dry matter content, wood density and root tissue density (RTD). Size and density of stomata and RTD were the most important predictors of species mortality rates. Synthesis and applications.Although focused on a single event in one type of forest, this work highlights the general importance, and need for further study, of interaction between climate change and mega-dams in Amazon forests. In particular, we expect that continued expansion of hydroelectric dams in Amazonia will likely intensify the impact of large floods on forests made newly vulnerable by these dams, with substantial effect on future forest functionality in expanded floodplain areas across the Basin. Hence, these interaction analyses should be required in the Brazilian legal instruments such as the environmental impact assessments and its accompanying Environmental Impacts Reports for large infrastructure projects in Amazon.in the functional composition of these forests towards more slowgrowing plants, which, on the one hand, would make campinaranas more resilient in the event of new floods, but could, on the other hand, decrease its short-term capacity for carbon sequestration besides lowering forest richness and diversity. We herein followed the K E Y W O R D S dams, flood tolerance, functional traits, global warming, precipitation anomaly, root tissue density, stomata density, tree mortality | 2643

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction between extreme weather events and mega‐dams increases tree mortality and alters functional status of Amazonian forests

Moser

Simon

Medeiros

et al. 2019

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…The local topography is flat and the predominant soil type in this region is Gleysol (Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) classification) [45]. studies have suggested that this forest shows two periods of water stress-one due to excess of water in the peak of the rainy season-and another due to water deficit, at the end of the dry season [42][43][44]. During the El Niño drought of 2005, decreased rates of evapotranspiration [42] and increasing rates of tree mortality were reported in this region [44].…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…studies have suggested that this forest shows two periods of water stress-one due to excess of water in the peak of the rainy season-and another due to water deficit, at the end of the dry season [42][43][44]. During the El Niño drought of 2005, decreased rates of evapotranspiration [42] and increasing rates of tree mortality were reported in this region [44]. Given the uncertainties of floodplain environmental response to seasonal cycles of flood and dry periods, this study aims to evaluate the seasonal productivity of this floodplain forest located in the Amazon-Cerrado transition, as well as its environmental controls, based on field observations and on enhanced vegetation index (EVI) derived from MODIS (MAIAC) surface reflectance data.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Phenology and Seasonal Ecosystem Productivity in an Amazonian Floodplain Forest

et al. 2019

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Several studies have explored the linkages between phenology and ecosystem productivity across the Amazon basin. However, few studies have focused on flooded forests, which correspond to c.a. 14% of the basin. In this study, we assessed the seasonality of ecosystem productivity (gross primary productivity, GPP) from eddy covariance measurements, environmental drivers and phenological patterns obtained from the field (leaf litter mass) and satellite measurements (enhanced vegetation index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer/multi-angle implementation correction (MODIS/MAIAC)) in an Amazonian floodplain forest. We found that ecosystem productivity is limited by soil moisture in two different ways. During the flooded period, the excess of water limits GPP (Spearman’s correlation; rho = −0.22), while during non-flooded months, GPP is positively associated with soil moisture (rho = 0.34). However, GPP is maximized when cumulative water deficit (CWD) increases (rho = 0.81), indicating that GPP is dependent on the amount of water available. EVI was positively associated with leaf litter mass (Pearson’s correlation; r = 0.55) and with GPP (r = 0.50), suggesting a coupling between new leaf production and the phenology of photosynthetic capacity, decreasing both at the peak of the flooded period and at the end of the dry season. EVI was able to describe the inter-annual variations on forest responses to environmental drivers, which have changed during an observed El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) year (2015/2016).

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Smith

2023

Ethnobiology

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Stand dynamics of the drought-affected floodplain forests of Araguaia River, Brazilian Amazon

Cited by 8 publications

References 49 publications

Interaction between extreme weather events and mega‐dams increases tree mortality and alters functional status of Amazonian forests

Interaction between extreme weather events and mega‐dams increases tree mortality and alters functional status of Amazonian forests

Phenology and Seasonal Ecosystem Productivity in an Amazonian Floodplain Forest

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