In the world richest biotope, wetlands, and specially floodplains, remain particularly active zones in terms of nutrients, biodiversity, flows spreading, sediment transfer and human activities. Today, these sensitive zones are facing increasing human pressures and augmentation in frequency and intensity of extreme hydrological events. The impact of such extreme events on floodplain ecology and biogeochemistry is still difficult to assess. In this context, hydrodynamic models are attractive tools for studying water circulation patterns in the floodplain and exchange with mainstream. However, they require relatively high quality data of topography, land cover, water levels and water flows to produce realistic results. In large unmonitored regions,
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The Amazon River has a mean discharge of 170,000 m3s−1 with a minimum and a maximum of 60,000 m3s−1 and 270,000 m3s−1 (Gallo & Vinzon, 2005). The Amazon River runs through more than 6,700 km. It contributes 17% of the freshwater inputs to the global ocean (Callède et al., 2010; Richey et al., 1986). Located between latitudes 5°N and 20°S and between longitudes 50°W and 80°W, the Amazon basin covers 4/10 of South America and 5% of the worldwide continents. It is spread over several countries: 63% of the total area is in Brazil, 16% in Peru, 12% in Bolivia, 5,6% in Colombia, 2,3% in Equateur, 0,6% in Venezuela and 0,2% in French Guyana (Goulding et al., …show more content…
Although the interactions and impact of man-made land transformation on the local to regional climate, and their feedbacks are still in debate, changes in precipitation and discharge are already observed by the most deforested regions of the Amazon. It gives evidence of the potential shift in vegetation and further feedback on climate and river corridor dynamics (Davidson et al., 2012; Funatsu et al., 2012). This could partly explain the rapid succession of extreme hydrological events (droughts in 2005, 2010, floods in 2009, 2012, 2014) (Marengo et al., 2011; Zeng et al., 2008) in the last decade. Gloor et al. (2013) recently showed that the Amazon basin has presented wetter climatic conditions since 1990.
Finally, anthropogenic pressures and climate changes alter the hydrological regime of Amazonian rivers, thus threatening the whole river-floodplain ecosystem (Junk et al., 2010). To better understand the interplay between water circulation and ecological characteristics and predict their evolution in terms of probable changes in river regime, it is necessary to develop appropriate models to reproduce the flow characteristics in
The Amazon River has a mean discharge of 170,000 m3s−1 with a minimum and a maximum of 60,000 m3s−1 and 270,000 m3s−1 (Gallo & Vinzon, 2005). The Amazon River runs through more than 6,700 km. It contributes 17% of the freshwater inputs to the global ocean (Callède et al., 2010; Richey et al., 1986). Located between latitudes 5°N and 20°S and between longitudes 50°W and 80°W, the Amazon basin covers 4/10 of South America and 5% of the worldwide continents. It is spread over several countries: 63% of the total area is in Brazil, 16% in Peru, 12% in Bolivia, 5,6% in Colombia, 2,3% in Equateur, 0,6% in Venezuela and 0,2% in French Guyana (Goulding et al., …show more content…
Although the interactions and impact of man-made land transformation on the local to regional climate, and their feedbacks are still in debate, changes in precipitation and discharge are already observed by the most deforested regions of the Amazon. It gives evidence of the potential shift in vegetation and further feedback on climate and river corridor dynamics (Davidson et al., 2012; Funatsu et al., 2012). This could partly explain the rapid succession of extreme hydrological events (droughts in 2005, 2010, floods in 2009, 2012, 2014) (Marengo et al., 2011; Zeng et al., 2008) in the last decade. Gloor et al. (2013) recently showed that the Amazon basin has presented wetter climatic conditions since 1990.
Finally, anthropogenic pressures and climate changes alter the hydrological regime of Amazonian rivers, thus threatening the whole river-floodplain ecosystem (Junk et al., 2010). To better understand the interplay between water circulation and ecological characteristics and predict their evolution in terms of probable changes in river regime, it is necessary to develop appropriate models to reproduce the flow characteristics in