The Middle Paran River Limnology of a Subtropical Wetland [Hardcover]

The Middle Paran? river is one of the largest in the world. Exceptionally rich in fauna and flora, it provides researchers with a glimpse into an ecosystem yet undisturbed by human civilization. This fascinating book covers all the key aspects of the Paran?s fluvial limnology and ecology, arranged in discrete and easily navigable sections. First, the physical and chemical environment is explained, then the rivers plant life, followed by its invertebrate life, and finally the vertebrates that inhabit the river.

1 2 2,3 MART?N H. IRIONDO , JUAN C?SAR PAGGI , AND MAR?A JULIETA PARMA 2 The great Paran? basin (2,600,000 km) covers a large portion of the Neotropical Realm, extending from the Andes to the Atlantic coast and c- necting the central regions of South America along 2,200 km in a northsouth direction. Most of the basin is under subtropical climates, which range from desertic in the west to humid in the east. The Middle Paran? is a broad, complex floodplain extending 600 km in the heart of the interior lowlands of the continent. This system of river channels, shallow lakes, islands, and wetlands remains unoccupied by man and basically unaltered. From a systemic point of view, this area can be considered to be the most important link and collector of the fluvial chain that conveys huge volumes of nutrients, sediments, and salts from the continent to the South Atlantic Ocean. The influence of the Paran? upon the Atlantic is very important. It has been 2 calculated that a sediment deposit 400 m thick and 1 million km in area ac- mulated in the platform and nearby oceanic bottom over the last 2 million years, with a similar amount of dissolved salts contributed by the river to the ocean. This book details the recent advances in the knowledge of the most important segment of the Parana River, organized according to the scientific structure of the National Institute of Limnology of Argentina (INALI-CONICET-UNL).1 Physical Geography of the BasinMartl(