1. Landscape Heterogeneity of Riverine Wetlands of the Amazon Basin from a Remote Sensing Perspective UCSB – INPE - UW Leal A.K. Mertes Evlyn Novo Yosio Shimabukuro Thelma Krug Jeffrey Richey Funding - NASA & W. Alton Jones Foundation

2. OUTLINE  Relationships among floodplain morphology, vegetation distribution, and inundation hydrology.  Floodplain morphology and inundation hydrology 1. along mainstem Amazon River 2. across Amazon Basin.  Classification procedure for optical data.  Trends in spatial patterns of Amazon Basin wetlands

3. Inundation Hydrology

4. Amazon Basin River Network - Digital Chart of the World

5. Amazon Basin Hydrology (based on unpublished data provided by Dunne & Newton) Average total rainfall - mm Coefficient of variation (by month) Averages based on data for 1972-1996

6. Vegetation Zonation on Amazon River Wetlands (After Junk 1970) low water

7. Methodology for Optical Data

8. forest Classification of SMA Data turbid shade/clear vegetation color composite classified v t sh senesced/bare turbid water clear water macrophyte

9. Amazon Mainstem Floodplain - Landsat Mosaic

10. Classified Mainstem Mosaic

11. FOREST I (LO DENSITY) FOREST II (HI DENSITY) MACROPHYTE I/ PASTURE (HI DENSITY) MACROPHYTE II/PASTURE (LO DENSITY) TURBID WATER CLEAR WATER CLEARWATER W/LOW VEGETATION SENESCED OR DEFOLIATED VEGETATION UNCLASSIFIED MUDDY PASTURE/MACROPHYTE BOTTOM REFLECTANCE SAND BARS URBAN/BARE PASTURE a b c a b c

12. Vegetation Zonation on Amazon River Wetlands (After Junk 1970) low water

13. Amazon Mainstem Floodplain - Areal (km 2 ) & Percent Cover  30567 lo trees 8776 hi trees 11610 lo macro 3328 hi macro 7595 clear 17951 turbid 1010 lo veg 2708 dry veg 6383 pasture 173 sand bar  90,275 all  64,383 just veg 25,546 just water

14. Summary for Mainstem  Landform and vegetation heterogeneity is most diverse in Zones 2 & 3 where there is significant mixing of river water and floodplain water during high water. Floodplain landforms available for colonization by vegetation include scroll bars, swales, lake shores, lake deltas, and floodplain drainage channels.  Zones 1 & 4 have less heterogeneous vegetation cover. However, where landforms are similar to the middle reaches, the spatial distribution of vegetation is similar.  Decreased forest cover downstream result of marked seasonality of precipitation and longer history of forest cutting. 1 2 3 4