River dynamics and the diversity of Amazon lowland forest

Autor:	Yrjö Mäkinen, Jukka Salo, Maarit Puhakka, Phyllis D. Coley, I. Häkkinen, Pekka Niemelä, Risto Kalliola
Rok vydání:	1986
Předmět:	Sedimentary depositional environment geography Multidisciplinary geography.geographical_feature_category Disturbance (ecology) Ecology Environmental protection Amazon rainforest Erosion Species diversity Rainforest Primary succession Channel (geography)
Zdroj:	Nature. 322:254-258
ISSN:	1476-4687 0028-0836
DOI:	10.1038/322254a0
Popis:	We suggest here that large-scale natural forest disturbance and primary succession in the lowland rainforests of the Peruvian Amazon is caused by lateral erosion and channel changes of meandering rivers. Our results indicate that in the upper Amazon region, primary succession on newly deposited riverine soils is a major mode of forest regeneration. Landsat imagery analyses show that 26.6% of the modern lowland forest has characteristics of recent erosional and depositional activity; 12.0% of the Peruvian lowland forest is in successional stages along rivers. This successional development is used to classify the western Amazon rainforests according to their geomorphological erosion–deposition pattern. We also propose that by causing high site turnover, disturbance and variation in forest structure, the river dynamics may be a major factor creating and maintaining the high between-habitat (β-type) species diversity characterizing the upper Amazon1.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::03956911a9ee87fae24b51eb7fd85c56 https://doi.org/10.1038/322254a0 Zobrazit plný text záznamu