<b>Hydro-geomorphologic controls in the vegetation of the Araguaia river floodplain, Brazil</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascibiolsci.v30i4.5871

Abstract

The existence of different vegetable typologies in the alluvial plains of the middle Araguaia presents a pattern of distribution determined by the fluvial dynamic of the channel and the type of sediments that form different units of the alluvial plain. The purpose of this study was to discuss how the fluvial processes acts in vegetation succession, considering the erosive and sedimentary activities within a short period of time, as well as the flood dynamic. The combined information from morphosedimentary unit maps of the alluvial plain and the vegetation units allows the elaboration of the map of morphosedimentary units. It was possible to verify that the vegetation units were distributed in a diversified way along the alluvial plain, composing a vegetation mosaic. Between 1965 and 1997, the action of the erosive processes in the banks of the channel that consume the alluvial plain removed in particular large arboreal vegetation types, and the high rates of sedimentation contribute to the formation of the most recent geomorphologic unit of the plain, which is being colonized especially by herbaceous species.