Abstract
The Madeira River is the second largest Amazon tributary, contributing up to 50% of the Amazon River’s sediment load. The Madeira has significant hydropower potential, which has started to be used by the Madeira Hydroelectric Complex (MHC), with two large dams along the middle stretch of the river. In this study, fine suspended sediment concentration (FSC) data were assessed downstream of the MHC at the Porto Velho gauging station and at the outlet of each tributary (Beni and Mamoré Rivers, upstream from the MHC), from 2003 to 2017. When comparing the pre-MHC (2003–2008) and post-MHC (2015–2017) periods, a 36% decrease in FSC was observed in the Beni River during the peak months of sediment load (December–March). At Porto Velho, a reduction of 30% was found, which responds to the Upper Madeira Basin and hydroelectric regulation. Concerning water discharge, no significant change occurred, indicating that a lower peak FSC cannot be explained by changes in the peak discharge months. However, lower FSCs are associated with a downward break in the overall time series registered at the outlet of the major sediment supplier—the Beni River—during 2010.
Highlights
The fluvial suspended sediment dynamic plays an essential role in transporting nutrients, maintaining water bodies’ stability, anddynamic supporting ecological habitats. multipleThe fluvial suspended sediment plays an essential roleThe in interactions transportingofnutrients, natural and anthropogenic factors acting on different temporalhabitats.and spatial in a watershed can maintaining water bodies’ stability, and supporting ecologicalThescales interactions of multiple control or modify the erosion rate, allowing sediment transport or promoting deposition and natural and anthropogenic factors acting on different temporal and spatial scales in a watershed resuspension in erosion the riverrate, channel [1]
Because a homogeneous vertical gradient was found at the Amazon main stem for the fine suspended sediment fraction [51], we focused only on the fine suspended sediment concentration (FSC)
The impacts caused by the Madeira Hydroelectric Complex (MHC) have become a major concern in the scientific community [24,25,26,27,28,29], and a reduction in the mean surface suspended sediment concentrations was found at Porto Velho (PV) between 2014 and 2015 [24]
Summary
The fluvial suspended sediment dynamic plays an essential role in transporting nutrients, maintaining water bodies’ stability, anddynamic supporting ecological habitats. multipleThe fluvial suspended sediment plays an essential roleThe in interactions transportingofnutrients, natural and anthropogenic factors acting on different temporalhabitats.and spatial in a watershed can maintaining water bodies’ stability, and supporting ecologicalThescales interactions of multiple control or modify the erosion rate, allowing sediment transport or promoting deposition and natural and anthropogenic factors acting on different temporal and spatial scales in a watershed resuspension in erosion the riverrate, channel [1]. The fluvial suspended sediment dynamic plays an essential role in transporting nutrients, maintaining water bodies’ stability, anddynamic supporting ecological habitats. The fluvial suspended sediment plays an essential roleThe in interactions transportingofnutrients, natural and anthropogenic factors acting on different temporalhabitats. Thescales interactions of multiple control or modify the erosion rate, allowing sediment transport or promoting deposition and natural and anthropogenic factors acting on different temporal and spatial scales in a watershed resuspension in erosion the riverrate, channel [1]. Andean Amazon by Aalto et al [3] and by Pepin et al [4], suspended sediment loads are good. Highly complex interaction indicators of large-scale variability and transport anthropogenic activities between the challenge hydrological, geological, and climatic influence the interaction sediment transport Andean Amazon by Aalto al. river [3] and by Pepin et As al. [4], suspended sedimentbyloads are good indicators resuspension processes inetthe channel [1].
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