ORGANIC CARBON VARIATION PATTERNS ON THE UPPER PARANÁ RIVER FLOODPLAIN

Abstract

The search for patterns to explain carbon dynamics in aquatic environments has gained importance in ecology. For possessing inherent characteristics such as being strongly driven by flooding regularity, river-floodplain systems now constitute a specific branch of ecology. In the present paper, the relationships between the amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and water level, rainfall, chlorophyll and carbon dioxide were tested in an atempt to explain the pattern of DOC variation on the upper Parana River floodplain. In the end, it was not possible to trace a general pattern of DOC variation based on the obtained results because the tested variables behaved differently according with each area and sample analyzed.