MINI REVIEW The vulnerability of Amazon freshwater ecosystems Leandro Castello1 , David G. McGrath1,2, Laura L. Hess3, Michael T. Coe1,PaulA.Lefebvre1,PauloPetry4, Marcia N. Macedo1,VivianF.Reno´ 5,&CarolineC.Arantes2 1 The Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA 2 Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia,ˆ Santarem,´ Para,´ Brazil 3 Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA 4 The Nature Conservancy, Latin American Conservation Region, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 5 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Sao˜ Jose´ dos Campos, Sao˜ Paulo, Brazil Keywords Abstract Conservation; ecosystem goods and services; floodplain; hydrologic connectivity; policy; The hydrological connectivity of freshwater ecosystems in the Amazon basin protected areas; wetlands. makes them highly sensitive to a broad range of anthropogenic activities occur- ring in aquatic and terrestrial systems at local and distant locations. Amazon Correspondence freshwater ecosystems are suffering escalating impacts caused by expansions Leandro Castello, The Woods Hole Research in deforestation, pollution, construction of dams and waterways, and over- Center, 149 Woods Hole Rd, Falmouth, MA harvesting of animal and plant species. The natural functions of these ecosys- 02540, USA. Tel: 1.508.1564; fax: +1.508.444.1864 tems are changing, and their capacity to provide historically important goods + E-mail:
[email protected] and services is declining. Existing management policies—including national water resources legislation, community-based natural resource management Received schemes, and the protected area network that now epitomizes the Amazon 25 June 2012 conservation paradigm—cannot adequately curb most impacts. Such manage- Accepted ment strategies are intended to conserve terrestrial ecosystems, have design 18 December 2012 and implementation deficiencies, or fail to account for the hydrologic connec- Editor tivity of freshwater ecosystems.