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Palaeoenvironmental control on modern forest composition of southwestern Marajó Island, Eastern Amazonia
Author(s) -
do Amaral Dário Dantas,
Mantelli Luis Rogério,
Rossetti Dilce de Fátima
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
water and environment journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1747-6593
pISSN - 1747-6585
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-6593.2011.00265.x
Subject(s) - palaeochannel , fluvial , amazon rainforest , floristics , holocene , pleistocene , geography , geology , shrubland , ecology , lithology , hydrology (agriculture) , physical geography , ecosystem , geomorphology , paleontology , archaeology , species richness , geotechnical engineering , structural basin , biology
This study focuses on a forested area from southwestern Marajó Island, mouth of Amazon River, aiming to analyse the relationship between plant composition and the latest Quaternary evolution of a land‐form with palaeochannel morphologies. A floristic survey aiming to characterize the inner and outer palaeochannel areas indicated similar phytossociological parameters. However, a large volume of species was exclusive to only one of these areas. Although the present‐day forest is fairly uniform, a significant variation in floristic composition was recorded according to differences in lithology, topography and hydrology. These were determined by the evolution of the physical environment associated with successive stages of abandonment of a large fluvial drainage system during the latest Pleistocene to Holocene. The results derived from this study indicate that reconstruction of a physical environment is an important parameter to be taken into account before establishing models aiming to explain the distribution of modern plant species in tropical areas.