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A Classification of Major Naturally-Occurring Amazonian Lowland Wetlands

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Abstract

Our estimates indicate that about 30% of the seven million square kilometers that make up the Amazon basin comply with international criteria for wetland definition. Most countries sharing the Amazon basin have signed the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance but still lack complete wetland inventories, classification systems, and management plans. Amazonian wetlands vary considerably with respect to hydrology, water and soil fertility, vegetation cover, diversity of plant and animal species, and primary and secondary productivity. They also play important roles in the hydrology and biogeochemical cycles of the basin. Here, we propose a classification system for large Amazonian wetland types based on climatic, hydrological, hydrochemical, and botanical parameters. The classification scheme divides natural wetlands into one group with rather stable water levels and another with oscillating water levels. These groups are subdivided into 14 major wetland types. The types are characterized and their distributions and extents are mapped.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade do Estado do Amazonas (UEA), Manaus, Brazil

    Wolfgang J. Junk

  2. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Manaus, Brazil

    Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade & Mario Cohn-Haft

  3. Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Biogeochemistry Department, Mainz, Germany

    Jochen Schöngart & Florian Wittmann

  4. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    J. Marion Adeney

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  1. Wolfgang J. Junk
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  2. Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade
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  3. Jochen Schöngart
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  4. Mario Cohn-Haft
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  5. J. Marion Adeney
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  6. Florian Wittmann
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Correspondence to Wolfgang J. Junk.

Appendix

Appendix

A glossary of indigenous, Portuguese and Spanish terms

Buritizal :

Palm swamp dominated by buriti (Mauritia flexuosa)

Campina (Caatinga baixa, Bana, Chamizal, Muri scrub) :

Low shrub and tree savanna areas on podzols in the Amazon rainforest. Some areas are periodically waterlogged or shallowly flooded (edaphic hydromorphic savannas)

Campinarana (Caatinga alta, Varillal, Wallaba) :

Low stature, thin-trunked forest areas on podzols in the Amazon rainforest, sometimes periodically waterlogged or shallowly flooded (edaphic hydromorphic savannas covered by stunted forest)

Campo úmido :

Wetland in the cerrado covered by grasses, sedges, and herbs

Cerrado :

Brazilian savanna. This general term includes different physiognomies from open grasslands and shrub lands to low dry forests (cerradão)

Igapó :

Floodplain of blackwater rivers

Paleo-várzea :

Ancient whitewater river sediments that were deposited during former interglacial periods and are impoverished in nutrients

Tepui :

Table mountain on the Guiana shield

Terra firme :

Upland, covered by never-flooded Amazonian rainforest

Várzea :

Floodplain of recent whitewater rivers

Vereda :

Wetland adjacent to streams in the cerrado and covered by shrubs, buriti palms, grasses, sedges, and herbs

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Junk, W.J., Piedade, M.T.F., Schöngart, J. et al. A Classification of Major Naturally-Occurring Amazonian Lowland Wetlands. Wetlands 31, 623–640 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-011-0190-7

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