Relationship between water transparency and physical-chemical variables in lakes of the western Amazon, Brazil - doi: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v34i1.9311

Abstract

Water transparency is one of the main indicators of seasonal changes from the water level in lacustrine systems, but other environmental spatial and temporal variables can act jointly on water transparency. The diagnosis of interactions among physical-chemical variables and water transparency can be made by fitting statistical models based on multiple regression analysis. The objective of this study is to evaluate the set of limnologic variables that best predict the seasonal variation in water transparency in lakes of the western Amazon. These data were collected in both the drought and flood seasons in 78 lakes of the Mamirauá Reserve for Sustainable Development (RDSM). The delineation of the sampling followed the choice of variables, the analysis of premises imposed by the linear regression model and the validation of the model. The variables that best fitted the model were: water level, bottom temperature, conductivity, and pH for both seasons analyzed (R² = 0.64). The resulting model suggests that the physical-chemical variables influence the re-suspension process and sedimentation of particulate material together with the seasonal variation of the water level at the lake system of RDSM