Chemistry Of Different Amazonian Water Types For River Classification: A Preliminary Review
Price
Free (open access)
Transaction
Volume
178
Pages
12
Page Range
17 - 28
Published
2013
Size
773 kb
Paper DOI
10.2495/WS130021
Copyright
WIT Press
Author(s)
E. A. Ríos-Villamizar, M. T. F. Piedade, J. G. Da Costa, J. M. Adeney & W. J. Junk
Abstract
Water chemistry provides important parameters for the study of river ecology and management options of rivers and connected wetlands. Sioli, in the 1950s, established three water types (whitewater, blackwater and clearwater) for explaining limnological characteristics of the large Amazonian rivers, and related the physico-chemical parameters of these water types with the geological properties of their basins; a landscape ecology approach. Today, an increasing amount of hydrochemical data indicate that the chemical composition of Amazonian water bodies varies much more than assumed by Sioli. Nonetheless, due to its simplicity for describing the natural physico-chemical variability of Amazonian rivers, his classification is still valid. Our analysis, based in literature and field work, allowed to distinguish well among the three classical water types and to provide new preliminary insights about the limnological classification of Amazonian rivers in order to subsidize the sustainable management of water resources and wetlands. Keywords: Amazon basin, river classification, water hydrochemistry, landscape ecology.
Keywords
Amazon basin, river classification, water hydrochemistry, landscape ecology