Amazon: Study shows how climate extremes impact riverside residents

Research has revealed that the intensification of climate change and the hydrological cycle in the Amazon Basin is generating disproportionate consequences for the floodplains, known as floodplains, which can harm the lives of the riverside population, who live in these regions.

The study, released by the scientific journal Environmental Research Letters, showed that the amplitude of flow variations in the Amazon River has increased since 1970, resulting in much more severe floods and droughts.

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This change affects the water dynamics in the floodplains more aggressively than in the main river channel, increasing the vulnerability of riverside communities and local ecosystems to extreme events.

The "multiplier effect" in the floodplains
The study analyzed the Lower Amazon between 1970 and 2023, and found that, starting in 2005, a year marked by a break in the time series due to extreme floods, the maximum water flow in the Amazon River grew by 8.7%.

However, water flow in adjacent floodplains, such as Curuai, jumped 68% in the same period.

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According to research, this means that water flow in the floodplains grows at a relative rate 13 times greater than that of the river itself.

During recent major floods, the current passing through flooded communities and forests reached 40 thousand m³/s, a large volume that is equivalent to the average flow of the Congo River, the second largest river in the world.

The study points out that, due to the flat and shallow geometry of these areas, the additional volume is not greatly expanding the flooded areas (which only grew by about 13.5%), but rather accelerating the movement of water and increasing their depth.

Impacts on riverside life
According to research, communities have already reported the consequences of this dizzying increase in water flow.

Read also: More than 90% of cities in Amazonas are impacted by river floods

Extreme and more violent floods directly harm family farming, disrupt planting calendars and threaten local public health, although in some specific cases they can temporarily facilitate river transport and the supply of fish.

In addition, the force of the waters has modified the very geography where these people live and the drastic increase in flow intensifies river erosion and sediment transport.

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In Curuai, for example, the storage of suspended sediments almost tripled between the decades 1995-2004 and 2005-2014, which can form larger and higher sandbanks, completely reconfiguring the topography of the floodplain.

This new topographic structure and the extension of flood times threaten native vegetation, which is finely adapted to specific flood frequencies and durations. According to the study, the breakdown of this ecological balance puts at risk the entire supply of natural resources on which riverside dwellers depend.

Warning for the future
The scenario is particularly worrying for the shallower plains located in the Lower Amazon region, such as Curuai and Monte Alegre, which tend to suffer an even more intense increase in flow with rising water levels.

In the face of increasingly frequent extreme events, researchers warn of the need for new studies and public policies specifically focused on mitigating impacts on populations and ecosystems in the Amazon floodplains, which are disproportionately more exposed to ongoing environmental changes.

*Under the supervision of Carolina Figueiredo

Source: CNN