General Aspects of Floodplain Ecology with Special Reference to Amazonian Floodplains

Abstract

Floodplains are wetlands which oscillate between terrestrial and aquatic phases. This makes them alternately suitable for aquatic and terrestrial organisms, but makes utilization by humans difficult. For this reason, the extensive floodplains of Europe and North America were largely eliminated or strongly modified early on by human activities. For example, flood control measures by Tulla brought about extensive changes in the large floodplain of the upper Rhine valley in the middle of the last century (Kunz 1975) long before the study of limnology was established. Therefore, floodplains were neglected by limnologists and terrestrial ecologists for a long time (Bayley 1980; Junk 1980).