BiodivERsA: Balancing biodiversity conservation with development in Amazonian wetlands (BONDS)

Amazonian floodplain habitats are under threat from deforestation, hydroelectric dams, and climate change. Yet, the floodplains harbour a large number of unique species and are extremely important as fish spawning and feeding grounds and thus very important for the subsistence of local people. In fact, lowland Amazonia supports the largest freshwater fishery and the most species-rich fish fauna on Earth, and rural Amazonians have the highest per-capita fish protein intake recorded anywhere in the world. In this project, we build on decades of floodplain-focused research by the different partners to further understand the threats of uncontrolled fisheries, infra-structural development, land-use change and climate change on floodplain environments. We are assessing the effects of local community-based fisheries management and are engaging a large number of regional and local stakeholders in looking for sustainable strategies for floodplain preservation. Results so far suggest that community-based fisheries management promote recovery of overexploited fish populations and simultaneously increase social welfare in local communities. We are currently analysing knock-on effects of community-based fisheries management and fish population recovery on other vertebrate groups, such as piscivorous birds, caimans, giant otters and dolphins. In addition, we are analysing the lake food webs through gut content analyses from several fish species and collections of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Unfortunately all the fieldwork for this project was interrupted by the pandemic and we are only now starting to obtain the data needed to analyse and produce outputs.

The project was interrupted by the pandemic and it has therefore been unable to live up to expectations and fulfill many of the objectives within the project period. The majority of the reported outcomes are based on previously collected data. However, we have been able to achieve some things of importance. For example, we have managed to expand the community-based management of fish resources to another 36 communities along the Jurua river. This has clear relevance for sustainable harvest of fish resources and wetland preservation at a local and regional scale. In addition, we have in the last year managed to sample fish and other aquatic vertebrate groups, birds, phytoplankton and zooplankton – thus scaling up existing datasets. These datasets will be analysed as soon as possible.

Threats to the integrity of biodiverse Amazon floodplain habitats from deforestation, dams, and climate change are increasingly severe but to date, Amazon biodiversity scenarios have not considered these critical environments. Building on decades of floodplain-focused research in the Amazon by consortium members, we will improve characterization of Amazonian whitewater floodplain habitats and inundation dynamics, allowing us to 1) scale up existing fish, floodplain forest, and phytoplankton diversity datasets, 2) evaluate the potential impacts of regional drivers such as climate, land use change, and dams on floodplain habitats, and 3) engage a large panel of stakeholders at local and regional scale in looking for sustainable strategies for wetlands preservation. The scenarios produced at both scales will be compared in terms of wetlands conservation and biodiversity descriptors including Essential Biodiversity Variables and SDG indicators. Our framework focusing on the floodplains of the mainstem Amazon river and Juruá river allows comparison between whitewater floodplain sites contrasting greatly in terms of floodplain geomorphology, land use and management history, commercial fishing pressure and human population density. Innovative aspects of our work include 1) testing a remote-sensing-based approach for mapping phytoplankton biodiversity in floodplain lakes; 2) use of new satellite data to greatly increase the spatiotemporal resolution of floodplain habitat and inundation maps; 3) environmental eDNA metabarcoding to examine the distribution and relative abundance of phyto/zooplankton, and fish in floodplain lakes; 4) individual-based modeling of fish foraging patterns across a network of oxbow lakes; and 5) nested-scale agent-based participatory models to develop scenarios. The proposed work will greatly expand available information for decision-making to support the vast biodiversity and extensive ecosystem services provided by Amazon whitewater floodplains.