Previous Fora / 2013
JUNK, Wolfgang
Professor, National Amazonian Research Institute
Wolfgang Junk is retired leader of the Working Group of Tropical Ecology at Max Planck-Institute for Limnology, Plön, Germany, where he was since 1980, and is now scientific coordinator of the National Institute for Science and Technology in Wetlands (INCT-INAU), Cuiabá, Brazil, and a visiting professor at State University of Manaus (UEA) and Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil. He is also a professor at the University of Hamburg, Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Cuiabá, and Federal Universityof Amazonas / INPA, Manaus.
Professor Junk is an expert in ecology and sustainable management of
floodplains and land-water interactions, and has a long distinguished career of
research in the Amazon River and Pantanal Basins in South America. He has
supervised about 35 M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses on floodplain ecology and fish
biology at German and Brazilian universities and has written over 260
publications on ecology and sustainable management of floodplains and land-water
interactions, including seminal works on his Flood Pulse Concept of
river-floodplain systems.
He is editor of Amazoniana and a member of the editorial boards of
several other international journals. He is on scientific advisory board of the
Argentinean National Limnological Institute (INALI) and the Center of Pantanal
Research CPP.
Dr. Junk has received the Award of the Grande Cruz, (the highest distinction in
Brazil) in 1998 for exceptional scientific performance, an International Fellow
Award of the Society of Wetland Scientists in 1999, honorary diplomas of the
Asociación Colombiana de Limnologia and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia,
Sede Leticia in 2002, an Honorary Warwick Kerr Medal for relevant services for
Post-Graduation in Amazonia in 2005, an honorary plaque of the Federal
University of Mato Grosso UFMT for significant contributions to the university
and environmental protection of wetlands, at the 8th INTECOL Wetland Conference
in 2008, and the Cross of Merit first class of the Federal Republic of Germany
in 2008.
ABSTRACT
16:00-17:30 25 november
PARALLEL THEMATIC SESSIONS I. "Amazonia, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development"
Structures, Functions, Threats and Management of Wetlands under Global Climate Change: The Amazonian Experience
The climate of large parts of tropical and subtropical South America is characterized by pronounced wet and dry periods. This pattern accounts for the periodic flooding of extended areas along most large rivers and interfluvial areas,exacerbated by the large flat land surfaces. About 30% of the Amazon lowlands and 20% of Brazil can be considered as wetlands. The large extent and variation of wetland types, their long geologic history and their habitat diversity make them centers of species evolution. Other important functions include buffering discharge of streams and rivers, recharging subterranean aquifers and the atmosphere with water, and hosting human populations. Although many wetlands are still in a near-natural condition, their natural vegetation cover is being increasingly destroyed by the agrarian frontier, which is quickly advancing in the Amazon basin. The hydrology of connected rivers is being modified by the construction of reservoirs and dikes and by the canalization of river channels. Poldering and drainage for agriculture have converted wetlands habitat to cropland. The new forest code, whose jurisdiction includes the protected areas along rivers and streams, does not consider the fluctuating boundaries and variable spacial extent of individual wetlands and thus will fail to protect these areas from the accelerating, destructive processes to which they are increasingly exposed. It also insufficiently protects large wetland complexes in the forested Amazon basin and the cerrado. The predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the year 2100 include a slight reduction of precipitation in some areas of Amazonia and an increase in others. However, over the entire area, a stronger periodicity in the rainfall pattern and an increase in extreme local and multiannual regional climate events, such as heat waves, droughts, heavy rain storms, and stronger El Niño and La Niña phenomena, are expected. This will lead to an increase in high floods and to severe low water levels and droughts, and thus to a greater reliance on the buffering capacity of intact wetlands to diminish the negative impact on nature and on local human populations. The first indications of hydrological changes are already evident in the discharge pattern of the Amazon River.Recently, scientists elaborated a specific definition, delineation, and classification of Brazilian wetlands and their macrohabitats. The approach considers the fluctuating water level of most wetlands and thus their exposure to explicit wet and dry periods. This makes the classification relevant not only for the Amazon basin but also for most other tropical and sub-tropical regions and for the many river-floodplain systems in northern and southern temperate and cold climates. It should be used to develop a specific Brazilian wetland-friendly legislation and a clear hierarchic structure of responsibility for its implementation. This will help to mitigate severe ecological, economic, and social side-effects of political development activities and global climate change, not only for wetlands but also for the entire country.