Revisiting the concept of longitudinal gradients in reservoirs
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2020
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Resumo
Reservoirs are an increasingly common type of aquatic ecosystem in countries where
hydropower is a dominant energy source. Understanding the functioning of these systems is essential
to establish monitoring strategies or priorities for their use. The main goal of this study was to test for
the presence of longitudinal gradients in reservoirs. Methods: We gathered data along the main axes
of 17 tropical reservoirs to test the relationship between different ecological indicators (e.g., turbidity,
nutrient concentrations, and phytoplankton abundance) and distance to the dam. After, we tested
whether the strengths of longitudinal gradients were related to a set of explanatory variables (occurrence
in a reservoir cascade, presence of tributaries near the dam, land-use, morphology and reservoir age).
Results: We did not find significant relationships between our set of ecological indicators and distance
to the dam and the strengths of these relationships were not consistently predicted by the explanatory
variables. However, different indicators suggested patterns consistent with expectations. Conclusion:
The distance to the dam is not a consistent predictor of the spatial variation of different limnological
variables in tropical reservoirs, highlighting a high degree of context-dependency.
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Zonas de reservatórios, Reservoir zonation, Hidroelétrica, Nutrientes, Monitoramento, Fitoplâncton, Hydroelectric, Phytoplankton, Nutrients, Monitoring
Citação
CARNEIRO, Fernanda Melo; BINI, Luis Mauricio. Revisiting the concept of longitudinal gradients in reservoirs. Acta Limnologica Brasiliensia, Rio Claro, v. 32, e8, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S2179-975X1319. Disponível em: https://www.scielo.br/j/alb/a/SDKcdPvdxyXZF6bgVxGzBHb/?lang=en. Acesso em: 30 dez. 2022.