Title
How plants of the Amazonian floodplain (Brazil) can affect the geochemical status of trace elements in the Amazon River mainstream?
Date Issued
01 January 2003
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Barroux G.
Viers J.
Seyler P.
Oliva P.
Dupré B.
Pinelli M.
Universite Paul Sabatier
Publisher(s)
EDP Sciences
Abstract
Multi-element analysis of plant tissue samples increased this last 20 years, in relation to chemical weathering processes. However, if plants play a key role in terms of storage and transfer of elements (major and trace) in natural ecosystems, our knowledge of transfer processes and fluxes are still poor. In the present study, we measured the concentrations of major and trace elements in the leaves of four different species (annual and perennial) of an amazonian floodplain during one hydrological period. The studied site is the "Ilha de Marchantaria" (3°15'S; 60°00'W) located on the Solimões River (Upper Amazon), near the city of Manaus. The results reveal high concentrations (from 10 to 1000 ppm for Al, Mn and Fe; from 10 to 100 ppm for Rb, Sr and Ba) in leaves and an annual variation which is reverse of the river discharge (High concentrations for low water level and low concentrations for high water level). According with datas of net primary production (100 t.ha-1.y-1) and of total floodplain area (200000 km2), we estimate the amount of trace elements stored or recycled in the vegetation of the amazon floodplains. We also observed that the amount of trace metals exported by the amazon is one hundred time less than the amount of trace metals stored or recycled by the vegetation.
Start page
119
End page
125
Volume
107
Issue
I
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geología Oceanografía, Hidrología, Recursos hídricos Geoquímica, Geofísica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-0038377535
ISSN of the container
11554339
Conference
Journal De Physique. IV : JP - XII International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus