Amazonian Floodplain Forests: Ecophysiology, Biodiversity and Sustainable Management

619 Pages·2011·15.23 MB·English

by  Wolfgang J. Junk

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Amazonian Floodplain Forests:
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Wolfgang J. Junk Maria T.F. Piedade
●
Florian Wittmann Jochen Schöngart
●
Pia Parolin
Editors
Amazonian Floodplain
Forests
Ecophysiology, Biodiversity
and Sustainable Management
Editors
Wolfgang J. Junk Maria T.F. Piedade
Max Planck-Institute for Limnology Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da
Plön, Germany Amazonia (INPA)
[email protected] Manaus Amazonas, Brazil
[email protected]
Florian Wittmann
Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry Jochen Schöngart
Biogeochemistry Department Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry
Mainz, Germany Biogeochemistry Department
[email protected] Mainz, Germany
[email protected]
Pia Parolin
University of Hamburg
Biozentrum Klein Flottbek
Abt. Systematik der Pflanzen
Hamburg, Germany
[email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-8724-9 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8725-6
DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8725-6
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010935491
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
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Cover illustration: Background Photo: Ceiba pentandra. Photo by Jochen Schöngart.
Upper figure: Figure 21.4 this volume. Mean cumulative diameter growth curves of 12 low-density and
high-density timber species from the Central Amazonian várzea floodplain forests. Figure by Jochen
Schöngart.
Lower Figure: Figure 10.1 this volume. Measured data points during 15 months of recording.
Figure by Pia Parolin with permission from the authors.
Printed on acid-free paper
Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
In 1989, growing concern about the destruction of tropical ecosystems and the need
to improve the living conditions of local populations in Amazonia and the cerrado led
Brazilian and German politicians and scientists, during the annual meeting of the
Joint Commission, to expand and intensify the already existing bilateral cooperation
in the field of ecology. The efforts aimed to achieve the following common interests:
(1) develop concepts for the sustainable use and protection of tropical ecosystems,
(2) solve or diminish already existing environmental problems, (3) consolidate or
expand already existing facilities for developing tropical ecology research, and (4)
promote scientific collaboration through joint research projects and training.
The partners selected the following geographic regions and research projects:
(1) the forests and floodplains in the Amazon basin, (2) the forests of the coastal
region (Mata Atlântica) and its inland waters, and (3) the floodplain of the upper
Paraguay River (Pantanal) and its catchment area.
The resulting program, entitled Studies of Human Impact on Forests and
Floodplains in the Tropics (SHIFT), became established within the framework of
the special agreement on cooperation in the field of environmental research and
technology between the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e Recursos
Renováveis (IBAMA) and the Deutsche Forschungs- und Versuchsanstalt für Luft- und
Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR). In 1992, the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) took the position of leadership of the Brazilian
side, participating in the project’s financing.
In light of the multiplicity of factors contributing to the impact of the study
biomes, including those of anthropogenic origin, the different levels of available
knowledge, infrastructure, and human resources, and the need for urgent actions,
the SHIFT Program, from its beginning, opted for a highly pragmatic approach. It
aimed at: (1) a description of the dimensions of human impact, (2) an analysis of
the reasons underlying these anthropogenic effects, (3) the elaboration of proposals
to mitigate the negative side effects of human action, and (4) the development of
new methods for sustainable management, taking into consideration the specific
ecological, economical, social, cultural and political conditions of the individual
study biomes and ecosystems.
To reach these goals, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies and a multi-
institutional approach were recommended, in a combination of investigations into
v
vi Foreword
terrestrial ecology, limnology, agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal husbandry, soil
science, climatology, and environmental technologies, as well as socio-economy,
regional planning, and resource management.
Logistic and scientific basis for the research projects in the Amazon River flood-
plains was the successful cooperation between the National Institute for Amazon
Research (INPA) in Manaus, and the Max-Planck Institute for Limnology (MPIL),
Plön that was established in 1962 by Prof. Djalma Batista and Prof. Harald Sioli.
The new projects were realized under the coordination of Dr. Maria Teresa
Fernandez Piedade of INPA and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Junk, head of the Working
Group of Tropical Ecology at MPIL. INPA provided laboratory space, and BMBF,
CNPq, and MPIL improved the projects’ infrastructure with equipment, financed
scholarships, travel expenses, and consumables of the projects. The scientific
results have been published in more than 600 scientific articles, book chapters, and
reports. Numerous Ph.D., M.Sc. and Bachelor theses were written by students
involved in the program. In 2000, the first book was published (Junk, W.J., Ohly, J.J.,
Piedade, M.T.F., and Soares, M.G.M., (eds): The Central Amazon Floodplain:
Actual Use and Options for a Sustainable Management. Backhuys Publishers,
Leiden: 584pp). The analyses of the already published material showed big gaps in
the knowledge of ecophysiology, biodiversity and sustainable management of the
floodplain forest, and since 1997 the field work concentrated on this subject.
In 2002, an independent joint scientific commission analyzed the program and
recommended its continuation for three more years in order to finalize the projects
and elaborate praxis-oriented solutions. However, a change in both the Brazilian
and the German political leadership led to the abrupt end of SHIFT, placing at risk
the many fruits of this successful cooperation. With the support of their institutions,
a strong will and even personal resources, the program’s leading scientists managed
to continue the work, even though on a much smaller scale, thus avoiding major
losses of scientific results, infrastructure, and human resources.
In August 2003, a cooperation contract with the Mamirauá Institute for
Sustainable Development was signed. In 2005, the research project in the Mamirauá
Reserve was selected as a Demonstration Project of UNESCO’s Ecohydrology
Programm (IHP). In 2006 the research group initiated a project financed by the
CNPq to support “research to develop a sustainable community-based management
of floodplain forests in the Amanã and Mamirauá Reserves”. In 2007, the team
received funding of a project in the Brazilian research initiative “Nucleus of
Excellence Projects” (PRONEX), supported by CNPq and Amazonas State Science
Foundation (FAPEAM). The main goal of this project is to typify the wetlands of
the Amazonas State, only possible owing to the accumulated information of the
team during the past decades. Other two projects were approved in 2008 by CNPq,
supporting studies on the impact of climate change on species shifts and diversity
losses of Amazonian floodplain vegetation.
The increasing drive in wetland research in South America culminated with the
realization of the eighth INTECOL Wetland Conference in 2007 in Cuiabá, Brasil,
and led to the elaboration of this book. It summarizes the major findings of the
SHIFT Program and reviews the recent results of research activities about floodplain
Foreword vii
forests in Central Amazonia regarding distribution, ecology, primary production,
ecophysiology, typology, biodiversity and use. Importantly, it offers recommenda-
tions for sustainable management and future projects in science and development
of the Amazon floodplain forests.
This is the first integrative book on the functioning and ecologically oriented use
of floodplain forests in the tropics and sub-tropics. It provides a solid scientific
basis for wetland ecologists, foresters, environmentalists, and wetland managers. It
is also an excellent textbook for students working in Amazonian floodplain forests
and similar forest types in other regions. The authors have worked for many years
in the Amazon basin and have a profound knowledge of the subject. They interpret
their findings under an integrating scientific concept, the Flood Pulse Concept.
On behalf of the coordinators of the research projects and the coeditors of this
book I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the CNPq, BMBF, Max-
Planck-Society and Amazonas State University (UEA), and the infrastructure
provided by INPA, MPIL and Mamirauá Reserve especially Dr. José Márcio C. Ayres
(in memoriam), and Helder Lima de Queiroz. We gratefully acknowledge the support
of Prof. Dr. José Galicia Tundisi, president of CNPq from February 1995 until
December of 1998, and his collaborators Dr. Carlos Roberto de Faria e Souza,
Dr. Glauter Pinto de Souza and Dr. Gilvan Marcelino. Our special thanks go to
Ms. Izaura Matiko Yamada, analyst in science and technology of CNPq, who gave
substantial help in all bureaucratic aspects. On the German side we gratefully
acknowledge the help of Dr. Günther Keil from BMBF, Dr. Emil Stüttgen from KFA
Jülich, Dr. Helmut Bianchi from GKSS Geesthacht, and Dr. Klaus Matthes, from
1990 to 1995 scientific attaché of the German Ambassy in Brasilia. Our special
thanks go to our technicians and field workers, mainly Celso Rabelo Costa, Valdeney
de A. Azevedo, Conceição Lúcia Maia Costa, Edivaldo de Souza Ferreira, Wallace
Rabelo Costa, Agenor Negrão da Silva, and Mario Picanço in Manaus, Jackson de
Castro and Emilson José Pereira Tiburcio in the Mamirauá Reserve, and Uwe Thein
(in memoriam), Stephanie Barthel, Elke Bustorf, Berit Hansen, Gerda Lemke and
Sabine Meier in Plön. Without their knowledge, field and laboratory experience and
enthusiasm, these studies would not have been performed at this high level.
Plön, Germany, spring 2009 Wolfgang J. Junk
w
Contents
Part I Amazonian Floodplain Forests and the Environment
1 An Introduction to South American Wetland Forests:
Distribution, Definitions and General Characterization ..................... 3
Wolfgang J. Junk and Maria T.F. Piedade
2 Development of the Amazon Valley During the Middle
to Late Quaternary: Sedimentological and Climatological
Observations ............................................................................................ 27
Georg Irion, Josè A.S.N. de Mello, Jáder Morais,
Maria T.F. Piedade, Wolfgang J. Junk, and Linda Garming
3 Remote Sensing of the Distribution and Extent of Wetlands
in the Amazon Basin ............................................................................... 43
John M. Melack and Laura L. Hess
4 Phytogeography, Species Diversity, Community Structure
and Dynamics of Central Amazonian Floodplain Forests .................. 61
Florian Wittmann, Jochen Schöngart, and Wolfgang J. Junk
Part II Ecological and Ecophysiological Aspects
of Amazonian Floodplain Forests
5 Tree Phenology in Amazonian Floodplain Forests............................... 105
Pia Parolin, Florian Wittmann, and Jochen Schöngart
6 Biochemistry of Amazonian Floodplain Trees ..................................... 127
Maria T.F. Piedade, Cristiane S. Ferreira, Astrid de Oliveira Wittmann,
Marcos Buckeridge, and Pia Parolin
7 The Morphology and Anatomy of Tree Roots
and Their Aeration Strategies ................................................................ 141
Karen Haase and Gudrun Rätsch
ix
x Contents
8 Fine Root Systems and Mycorrhizal Associations
in Two Central Amazonian Inundation Forests:
Igapó and Várzea .................................................................................... 163
Ulrike Meyer, Wolfgang J. Junk, and Christine Linck
9 Morphology and Anatomy of Leaves .................................................... 179
Danielle Waldhoff and Pia Parolin
10 Gas Exchange and Photosynthesis ........................................................ 203
Pia Parolin, Danielle Waldhoff, and Maria T.F. Piedade
11 Sap Flow and Stem Respiration ............................................................. 223
Viviana Horna, Reiner Zimmermann, Ewald Müller,
and Pia Parolin
12 Fruit and Seed Chemistry, Biomass and Dispersal .............................. 243
Pia Parolin, Danielle Waldhoff, and Maria T.F. Piedade
13 Seed Germination and Seedling Establishment
of Amazonian Floodplain Trees ............................................................. 259
Astrid de Oliveira Wittmann, Aline Lopes,
Auristela Dos Santos Conserva, Florian Wittmann,
and Maria T.F. Piedade
14 Nitrogen Balance of a Floodplain Forest of the Amazon River:
The Role of Nitrogen Fixation................................................................ 281
Jürgen Kern, Heidi Kreibich, Matthias Koschorreck,
and Assad Darwich
15 Genetic Variability, Divergence and Speciation
in Trees of Periodically Flooded Forests of the Amazon:
A Case Study of Himatanthus sucuuba (Spruce) Woodson ................. 301
Cristiane S. Ferreira, Antonio V.O. Figueira, Rogério Gribel,
Florian Wittmann, and Maria T.F. Piedade
16 The Importance of Amazonian Floodplain Forests
for Animal Biodiversity: Beetles in Canopies
of Floodplain and Upland Forests ......................................................... 313
Joachim Adis, Terry L. Erwin, Leandro D. Battirola,
and Suzana M. Ketelhut
Part III Sustainable Management of Amazonian Floodplain Forests
17 Wood Anatomy and Tree-Ring Structure and Their
Importance for Tropical Dendrochronology ........................................ 329
Martin Worbes and Esther Fichtler