Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Amazon lakes

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Introduction

With ∼6,200,000 km2 of drainage area mainly covered by the Amazon rainforest and discharging near 18% of the total flow of fresh water to the ocean, the Amazon fluvial system continues to intricate naturalists across the world.

Carrying an average water discharge of more than 200,000 m3s−1 and a sedimentary load that could oscillate between 1 and 2 billions of tons per year to 614 Mt year−1 at Obidos, close to the mouth (Meade, 1994; Filizola and Guyot, 2009), the Amazon river is the largest and most peculiar fluvial system of the world with respect to water discharge. The Amazon rainforest, the largest tropical forest in the world, originally occupied more than 5 million km2spreading mainly over the Amazon fluvial basin. Humid tropical climate prevails, and rainfall averaging 2,000 mm/year increases in the northwestern direction and in some parts of the Sub-Andean zone to more than 5,000 mm/year. Although the rainforest extends into various countries, ∼70% of the total...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Absy, M. L., 1979. A Palynological Study of Holocene Sediments in the Amazon Basin. PhD thesis, Amsterdam, PhD thesis, 76p.

    Google Scholar 

  • Absy, M. L., Cleef, A. L. M., Fournier, R. M., Martin, L., Servant, M., Sifeddine, A., Da Silva, M. F., Soubies, F., Suguio, K., Turq, B., and van der Hammen, T., 1991. Mise en evidence de quatre fases d`ouserture de la fôret dense dans le sud-est de l’ Amazonie au cours des 60000 dernieres annes. Priemiére comparásion osec d`autre regions tropicales. Comptes-rendus de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris, II, 312, 673–678.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anhuf, D., Ledru, M.-P., Behling, H., Da Cruz, F. W., Jr., Cordeiro, R. C., Van der Hammen, T., Karmann, I., Marengo, J. A., De Oliveira, P. E., Pessenda, L., Siffedine, A., Albuquerque, A. L., and Da Silva Dias, P. L., 2006. Paleo-environmental change in Amazonian and African rainforest during the LGM. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 239, 510–527.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M. B., and Silman, M. R., 2004. Observations on late Pleistocene cooling and precipitation in the lowland neotropics. Journal of Quaternary Science, 19, 677–684.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bush, M. B., De Oliveira, P. E., Miller, M. C., Moreno, E. and Colinvaux, P. A., 2004. Amazonian paleoecological histories: one hill, 3 watersheds. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 214, 359–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, K. E., Jr., and Frailey, C. D., 1984. Holocene flooding and species diversity in southwestern Amazonia. Quaternary Research, 21, 369–375.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, K. E., Jr., Frailey, C. D., and Arellano, L. J., 1985. The geology of the Rio Beni: further evidence for Holocene flooding in Amazonia. Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 364, 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho, G. O., 2006. Environmental resistance and the politics of energy development in the Brazilian Amazon. The Journal of Environment & Development, 15(3), 245–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colinvaux, P. A., De Oliveira, P. E., and Bush, M. B., 2000. Amazonian and neotropical plant communities on glacial time-scales: the failure of the aridity and refuge hypothesis. Quaternary Science Reviews, 19, 141–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunne, T., Mertes, L. A. K., Meade, R. H., Richey, J. E., and Forsberg, B. R., 1998. Exchanges of sediment between the flood plain and channel of the Amazon river in Brazil. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 110, 450–467.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumont, J. F., 1993. Lake patterns as related to neotectomics in subsiding basins: the example of the Ucamara depression, Peru. Tectonophysics, 222, 69–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dumont, J. F., and García, F., 1991. Active subsidence controlled by basement structures in the Marañón basin of northeastern Perú. In Land Subsidence Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Land Subsidence. Wallingford: International Association of Hydrological Sciences, Vol. 200, pp. 343–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engle, D. L., and Sarmelle, O., 1990. Algal use of sedimentary phosphorous from an Amazon floodplain lake: implications for total phosphorous analysis in turbid waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 35, 487–490.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fearnside, P. M., 1995. Hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon as sources of greenhouse gases. Environmental Conservation, 22, 7–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fearnside, P. M., 2005. Hidrelétricas planejadas no Rio Xingu como fontes de gases do efeito estufa [Planned hydroelectric plants in the Xingu Rivers as sources of greenhouse gases]. In Sevá, A. O. (ed.), Tenotã-Mõ Alertas Sobre as Conseqüências dos Projetos Hidrelétricos no rio Xingu. São Paulo: International Rivers Network, Instituto Socioambiental, FASE, Comissão Pro-Indio, pp. 204–244.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fearnside, P., 2006. Dams in the Amazon: Belo Monte and Brazil’s hydroelectric development of the Xingu River Basin. Environmental Management, 38(1), 16–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Filizola, N., and Guyot, J. L., 2009. Suspended sediment yields in the Amazon basin: an assessment using the Brazilian data set. Hydrological Processes, 23, 3207–3215.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frailey, C. D., Lavina, E., Rancy, A., and de Souza Filho, J., 1988. A proposed Pleistocene/Holocene lake in the Amazon basin and its significance to Amazonian geology and biogeography. Acta Amazonica, 18(3–4), 119–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furch, K., and Junk, W., 1997. Physicochemical conditions in the floodplains. In Junk, W. J. (ed.), The central Amazon floodplain. Berlin: Springer, pp. 69–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, R. J., 1967. The geochemistry of the Amazon river system: part I. The factors that control the salinity and the composition and concentration of suspended solids. Geological Society of American Bulletin, 78, 1203–1232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hess, L., Melack, J. M., Novo, E., Barbosa, C., and Gastil, M., 2003. Dual-season mapping of wetland inundation and vegetation for the central Amazon basin. Remote Sensing of Environment, 87(404), 428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooghiemstra, H., and van der Hammen, T., 1998. Neogene and Quaternary development of the neotropical rain forest: the refugia hypothesis, and a literature review. Earth Science Reviews, 44, 147–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoorn, C., 1993. Miocene incursions and the influence of Andean tectonics on the Miocene depositional history of northwestern Amazonia: results of a palynostratigraphic study. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 105, 267–309.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoorn, C., 2006. Birth of the mighty Amazon. Scientific American, 294, 66–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irion, G., 1984. Sedimentation and sediments of the Amazonian rivers and evolution of the Amazonian landscape since Pliocene times. In Sioli, H. (ed.), The Amazon, Limnologyand Landscape Ecology of a Mighty Tropical River and its Basin. Dordretch: W. Junk, pp. 201–213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irion, G., de Junk, W., and Mello, A. S. N., 1997. The large central Amazonian river floodplains near Manaus: geological, climatological, hydrological and geomorphologic aspects. In Junk, W. J. (ed.), The Central Amazon Floodplain. Berlin: Springer, pp. 24–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iriondo, M., 1982. Geomorfologia da Planicie Amazonica. IV Simpósio do Quaternário no Brasil. ABEQUA, Rio de Janeiro, Atas, pp. 323–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Junk, W. J., 1997. The Central Amazon Floodplain. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., 2008. Patterns of anabranching channels: the ultimate end-member adjustments of mega-rivers. Geomorphology, 101, 130–145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., and Rancy, A., 1998. The late quaternary of the upper Jurua river, Amazonia Brazil. Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula, 11, 27–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., and Kalicki, T., 2002. Late quaternary palaeohydrological changes in the upper Purus basin, southwestern Amazonia, Brazil. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie, 129, 41–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., and Franzinelli, E., 2002. The Holocene alluvial plain of the middle Amazon river, Brazil. Geomorphology, 44(3–4), 241–257.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., and Franzinelli, E., 2005. The late quaternary evolution of the Negro river, Amazon, Brazil: implications for island and floodplain formation in large anabranching tropical systems. Geomorphology, 70, 372–397.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., and Nelson, B., 2001. Evidence for late quaternary aeolian activity in the Roraima-Guyana region. Catena, 43, 63–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., and Rancy, A., 2000. Neotectonic influence on tropical rivers of southwestern Amazon during the late quaternary: the Moa and Ipixuna river basins, Brazil. Quaternary International, 72, 67–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., Cozzuol, M., Rigsby, C., Silva, S., Absy, M. L., and Jaramillo, C., 2010. The late Miocene paleogeography of the Amazon basin and the evolution of the Amazon river. Earth Science Reviews, 99, 99–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E. M., Silva, S. A., Cozzuol, M., and Absy, M. L., 2007. Late Miocene continental sedimentation in southwestern amazônia and its regional significance: biotic and geological evidences. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 23(1), 61–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latrubesse, E., Stevaux, J. C., and Sinha, R., 2005. Tropical rivers. Geomorphology, 70, 137–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ledru, M. P., Bertaux, J., Sifeddine, A., and Suguio, K., 1998. Absence of Last Glacial Maximum Records in Lowland Tropical Forests Quaternary Research, 49, 233–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lesack, L. F. W., and Melack, J. M. Flooding hydrology and mixture dynamics of lake water derived from multiple sources in an Amazon floodplain lake. Water Resources Research, 31, 329–345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayle, F. E., Burbridge, R., and Killeen, T. J., 2000. Millennial scale dynamics of southern Amazonian rainforests. Science, 290, 2291–2294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meade, R., 1994. Suspended sediments of the modern Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Quaternary International, 21, 29–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melack, J. M., and Fisher, T. R., 1983. Diel oxygen variations and their ecological implications in Amazon floodplains lakes. Archiv für Hydrobiologie, 98, 422–442.

    Google Scholar 

  • Melack, J., and Forsberg, B., 2001. Biogeochemistry of Amazon floodplain lakes and associated wetlands. In McClain, M., Victoria, R., and Richey, J. (eds.), The Biogeochemistry of the Amazon Basin. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 235–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertes, L. A., 1997. Documentation and significance of the periphereic zone on inundated floodplains. Water Resource Research, 33, 1749–1762.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertes, L. A., and Meade, R., 1985. Particle sizes of sands collected from the bed of the Amazon river and its tributaries in Brazil during 1982–1984. US Geological Survey, Open File Report, 16 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertes, L. A., Dunne, T., and Martinelli, L. A., 1996. Channel-floodplain geomorphology along the Solimões-Amazon river, Brazil. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 108, 1089–1107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murca-Pires, J., 1984. The Amazonian Forest. In Sioli, H. (ed.), The Amazon. Dordtrecht: Dr. W. Junk, pp. 581–601.

    Google Scholar 

  • Räsänen, M., Linna, A. M., Santos, J. C. R., and Negri, F. R., 1995. Late Miocene tidal deposits in the Amazonian foreland basin. Science, 269, 386–389.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richey, J., Devol, A., Wofsy, R., Victoria, R., and Ribeiro, M., 1988. Biogenic gases and the oxidation and reduction of carbon in Amazon river and floodplain waters. Limnology and Oceanography, 33, 551–561.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richey, J. E., Mertes, L. A. K., Dunne, T., Victoria, R., Forsberg, B. R., Tancredi, C. N. S., and Oliveira, E., 1989. Sources and routing of the Amazon river flood wave. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 3, 191–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sippel, S. J., Hamilton, S. K., and Melack, J. M., 1992. Inundation area and morphometry of lakes on the Amazon river floodplain, Brazil. Archives of Hydrobiology, 123, 385–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sippel, S. J., Hamilton, S. K., Melack, J. M., and Novo, E., 1998. Passive microwave observations of inundation area and the area/stage relation in the Amazon river floodplain. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 19(16), 3055–3074.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sioli, H., 1957. Sedimentation im amazonasgebiet. Geologische Rundschau, 45, 608–633.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sioli, H., 1984. The Amazon and its main affluents: hydrograph, morphology of the river courses and river types. In Sioli, H. (ed.), The Amazon. Dordretch: Dr. W. Junk-Kluewer, pp. 127–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, H., 1960. Radiocarbon dating as applied to a problem of Amazonian morphology. In Comptes Rendus du XVIII Congrés International de Geographic, pp. 399–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teeuw, R., and Rhodes, E., 2004. Aeolian activity in northern Amazonia: optical dating of late Pleistocene and Holocene dunes. Journal of Quaternary Sciences, 19(1), 49–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tricart, J., 1977. Types de lits fluviaux en Amazonie Bresilienne. Annales de Geophysique, 437, 1–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Hammen, T., and Absy, M. L., 1994. Amazonia during the last glacial. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 109, 247–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wesselingh, F. P., Räsänen, M. E., Irion, G., Vonhof, H. B., Kaandorp, R., Renema, W., Romero Pittman, L., and Gingras, M., 2002. Lake Pebas: a palaeoecological reconstruction of a Miocene, long-lived lake complex in western Amazonia. Cainozoic Research, 1, 35–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wismar, R., Richey, E., Stallard, R., and Edmond, J., 1981. Plankton metabolism and carbon processes in the Amazon river, its tributaries and floodplan waters. Per-Brazil, May–June 1977. Ecology, 62, 1622–1633.

    Google Scholar 

  • Witmore, T. C., and Prance, G. T., 1987. Biogeography and Quaternary History in Tropical America. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

I specially thank Dr. Ph. Fearnside for providing valuable information on dams in the Amazon basin.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A3100, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Prof. Edgardo Manuel Latrubesse

Authors
  1. Prof. Edgardo Manuel Latrubesse
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edgardo Manuel Latrubesse .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lars Bengtsson

  2. Reading, UK

    Reginald W. Herschy

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Latrubesse, E.M. (2012). Amazon lakes. In: Bengtsson, L., Herschy, R.W., Fairbridge, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4410-6_36

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation