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Hydropower and the future of Amazonian biodiversity

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Abstract

In an effort to ensure energy independence and exploit mineral resources, the governments of Amazonian countries are embarking on a major dam building drive on the basin’s rivers, with 191 dams finished and a further 246 planned or under construction. This rush to harvest the basin’s vast renewable energy capacity has come without proper consideration of the likely negative environmental externalities on the world’s most speciose freshwater and terrestrial biotas. Here we highlight the economic drivers for hydropower development and review the literature to summarise the impacts of dam building on Amazonian biodiversity. We identify both direct and indirect impacts through the anticipated loss, fragmentation and degradation of riparian habitats. We then propose a series of measures to assess, curb and mitigate the impacts of destructive dams on Amazonian biodiversity.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Priscilla Amaral for additional information and Leandro Sousa for the use of his fish images. ACL, JZ and PMF thank CNPq for funding. CAP was funded by a CAPES Grant (PVE 004/2012) during this writing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA

    Alexander C. Lees

  2. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

    Carlos A. Peres

  3. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Manaus, Amazonas, 69067-375, Brazil

    Philip M. Fearnside & Jansen A. S. Zuanon

  4. Consultoria Legislativa, Câmara dos Deputados, Brasília, Distrito Federal, 70160-900, Brazil

    Maurício Schneider

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  1. Alexander C. Lees
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  2. Carlos A. Peres
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  3. Philip M. Fearnside
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  4. Maurício Schneider
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  5. Jansen A. S. Zuanon
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Correspondence to Alexander C. Lees.

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Communicated by Karen E. Hodges.

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Lees, A.C., Peres, C.A., Fearnside, P.M. et al. Hydropower and the future of Amazonian biodiversity. Biodivers Conserv 25, 451–466 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1072-3

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