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Wetland Habitat Diversity in the Amazonian Piedmont of Colombia

Wetlands volume 32, pages 1189–1202 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Management of wetlands is often constrained by lack of a precise typology of habitats. Regional landscape attributes need to be considered in the integrative research of wetlands to allow habitat-specific management. Here we investigated the distribution and the habitat diversity of the wetlands in the Amazonian Piedmont in the Caquetá Department of Colombia. Based on the landscape approach we combined geomorphic, hydro-chemical and biotic attributes. We used remote sensing based interpretation and ground truth verification. We found 896 wetlands covering up to 11 % of the study area. Our estimate of the wetland area does not reflect the true historic wetland area (occasionally flooded area) because 76.9 % of the flooded active floodplain area has been converted to pastures. Including the pastures the estimated wetland area is 29.3 % of the study region. We identified 7 wetland habitats. The method we applied can be used to map small and middle sized wetlands achieving an acceptable overall accuracy. These wetlands provide important ecosystem services and act as corridors for biodiversity in human-dominated landscapes such as the Caquetá region. Our results provide support for the wise use of tropical wetlands and may help to improve landscape management in the Amazon basin.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded through Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas Sinchi and Ramsar Convention (Small Grants Fund, Project SGF/00/COL/1). Especially we thank EAWAG and DAAD (LFR), and National Institute for Science and Technology in Wetlands (INCT-INAU) (KMW). The comments by the associated editor, two anonymous reviewers, and Kristy Deiner and Luis Cayetano of EAWAG, Dübendorf, Switzerland, helped to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aquatic Ecology, EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Sciences and Technology, Duebendorf, Switzerland

    Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte & Jukka Jokela

  2. IBZ, Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH-Zürich, Switzerland

    Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte & Jukka Jokela

  3. Faculdade de Arquitetura, Engenharia e Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Av. Fernando Correa da Costa, S/N, 78060-900, Cuiabá, Brazil

    Auberto Siqueira

  4. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas (SINCHI), Avenida Vásquez Cobo entre calles 15 y 16, Leticia, Colombia

    Marcela Núñez-Avellaneda

  5. Escuela de Biología, Universidad Industrial de Santander-UIS, Facultad de Ciencias, Bucaramanga, Colombia

    Cesar Marin

  6. Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad de la Amazonia, Florencia, Colombia

    Alexander Velázquez-Valencia

  7. Interdisciplinary Research Center for Cities, Territories, Environment and Society (CITERES-CNRS UMR 7324), Université François Rabelais, Parc Grandmont, 37200, Tours, France

    Karl Matthias Wantzen

Authors
  1. Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte
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  2. Jukka Jokela
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  3. Auberto Siqueira
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  6. Alexander Velázquez-Valencia
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  7. Karl Matthias Wantzen
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Correspondence to Luisa Fernanda Ricaurte.

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Ricaurte, L.F., Jokela, J., Siqueira, A. et al. Wetland Habitat Diversity in the Amazonian Piedmont of Colombia. Wetlands 32, 1189–1202 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-012-0348-y

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Keywords

  • Aquatic habitat
  • Conservation
  • Landscape
  • South America
  • Sustainable management
  • Wetland classification