Córrego do Veado, near Coxim

Environment

Environment

Untouched

Surrounding area

The habitat I described is belongs to a tributary of Taquari river which is near the town of Coxim, in south-central Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The coordinates of Coxim are S 18° 30′ 24″ and W 54° 45′ 36″.
The Pantanal is the largest complex of wetlands in the world, and it is part of the Upper Paraguai River Basin. The Pantanal wetlands comprise nearly 250,000 km2. The Taquari is one of its largest rivers which has a length of about 800 km and about 500 km of it is in the wetlands of the Pantanal. The size of the high Taquari River basin is 29,000 km2, and the area of the river basin in the Pantanal is about 50,000 km2.
The Taquari is unique in the world, because it has the largest alluvial fan in the world, and it is a natural river showing all its characteristics.

Underwater landscape

The substrate of the river is fine white sand, which makes the river clear and transparent. Roots, branches and leaves fall into the river and gather in the slow-flowing area, provide shelters for inhabited fishes.

There are plenty of aquatic plants, e.g. Myriophyllum sp., Ceratophyllum demersum, Mayaca fluviatilis, Cyperus sp., and Eleocharis parvula. When the rainy season comes, the river will flood the area on the shore, and more terrestrial plants will be submerged in the water, providing additional shelters and food for fish.

Aquatic plants:

• Bacopa australis
• Chara rubyana
• Echinodorus cordifolius
• Echinodorus grandifolius
• Echinodorus macrophyllus
• Helanthium bolivianum
• Echinodorus bolivianus
• Hydrocotyle verticillata
• Hydrocotyle leucocephala
• Ludwidwigia peruviana
• Myriophyllum aquaticum
• Nymphea jamesioniana
• Nymphea gardneriana
• Potamogeton illinoensis
• Polygonum aquaticum
• Polygonum hidropiperoides
• Pontederia parvifolia

Threats to ecology

Pantanal, the paradise, seems under threat. The landscape of the highlands that surround the Pantanal, the Planalto is part of the biogeographic zone of the Cerrado. The Cerrado biome is situated south of the Amazone from the dry northeast to the Pantanal. It consists of poor soils, fine sand and silt with low organic content. It is highly erosive and its soil can easily be taken away by rain or wind. In the upper Taquari, the erosive area is about 13,380 km2 (46 % of its area). A considerable change has taken place in land use. The loss of soil is serious on an area of 12,603 km2 (44 % of the high catchment). The yearly average potential loss here at present is 556 tonnes/ha. This results in a sediment discharge at Coxim in 1995 of 2000 m3 per day.

The sanding up of the Rio Taquari at the moment is a major problem, because of the nearly permanent inundation of large area in a region of about 11,000 km2 in the sub-region Paiaguás. Solving that problem is difficult as there is no coherent river management organization and the nature of the river, especially in the lower reach, is unknown. The knowledge to make decisions for tackling both problems is lacking. It is the challenge of this project that to deliver that knowledge.

The main problem that has been indicated by the people living in the area of the Pantanal has been the national colonization in the 1970s that had completely changed the land cover and land use of the Planalto. This is where they search the main cause of their present problems.

Riparian zone

Trees near the aquatic habitat

Many -

Bibliography

• → A tributary of Taquari river, near the town of Coxim by Nan Li
  
• → Facebook & Youtube by Tai Strietman
  

Comment by the expert