The Central Amazon Floodplain Ecology of a Pulsing System
Floodplains are ecosystems which are driven by periodic inundation and oscillation between terrestrial and aquatic phases. An understanding of such pulsing systems is only possible by studying both phases and linking the results into an integrated overvie
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Edited by
M.M. Caldwell, Logan, USA G. Heldmaier, Marburg, Germany O.L. Lange, Wtirzburg, Germany H.A. Mooney, Stanford, USA E.-D. Schulze, Bayreuth, Germany U. Sommer, Kiel, Germany
Ecological Studies Volumes published since 1992 are listed at the end of this book.
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
W.J. Junk (Ed.)
The Central Amazon Floodplain Ecology of a Pulsing System With 137 Figures and 72 Tables
'Springer
Dr. Wolfgang J. Junk Max-Planck-Institut fur Limnologie Postfach 165 24302 Plon, Germany
ISSN 0070-8356 ISBN 978-3-642-08214-6 CIP data applied for Die Deutsche Bibliothek- CIP-Einheitsaufnahme The central Amazon floodplain: with 72 tables/Wolfgang J. Junk (ed.). (Ecological studies; Vol. I26) ISBN 978-3-642-08214-6 ISBN 978-3-662-03416-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-662-03416-3 NE: Junk, Wolfgang}. [Hrsg.]; GT This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically tbe rights of translation, reprinting reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH. Violations are liable for prosecution under tbe German Copyright Law. ©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1997 Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 1997 The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in tbe absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Design & Production GmbH, Heidelberg Typesetting: Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong SPIN I 0484060
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Foreword
For a long time wetlands have received little attention from ecological researchers worldwide. In part, the reason may be that neither the terrestrial nor the aquatic ecologists, the limnologists, felt themselves competent to study areas which combine within themselves terrestrial as well as aquatic conditions of life, and instead they preferred to concentrate, or to limit, their efforts on ever more detailed investigations of their traditional subjects. In part, too, this neglect may be due to the fact that the word "wetland" is a collective name which comprises many, very distinct landscape units, from swamps and peatbogs to river floodplains. Even certain arctic regions with permafrost soil must be taken as "wetland" since the summer sun melts the frozen surface of the ground, creating temporary pools of high bioproductivity in the form of the well-known mosquito nuisance. The ecosystems of wetlands thus show in themselves terrestrial and aquatic characteristics, either spatially intermingled or temporally alternating. Floodplain
