CHANGES IN ESTUARINE ISLANDS AND RAINFALL TRENDS IN THE JAGUARIBE RIVER WATERSHED, CEARÁ STATE, BRAZIL

Authors

  • Mario Duarte Pinto Godoy Universidade Federal do Ceará.
  • Luiz Drude de Lacerda Universidade Federal do Ceará.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32360/acmar.v46i2.902

Keywords:

mangrove forest, geoprocessing, land use changes, rainfall trends, watershed, Jaguaribe River.

Abstract

The Jaguaribe River drains the largest watershed of Ceará state, in northeastern Brazil, with a catchment of  about 75,000 km², over 50% of the total state area. L and use and global climate changes are altering river morphology, difficulting navigation in the estuary and affecting the aquatic biota. Mapping of fluvial islands using images from the  Landsat 5 satellite between 1988 and 2010 showed that the existing islands in the estuary suffered great changes during  this period. Overall, there was an increase of 24.15 hectares in the islands area, which are presently colonized by mangrove  vegetation.  The period of largest growth occurred between 1992 and 2003 when there was an increase of 13 hectares with  a rate of 2.7 ha.yr -1 .  The increased rate of sedimentation in the estuary caused by land use drivers are aggravated by the  decrease in river flow caused damming and the decrease in rainfall over the basin caused by global climate change.

Author Biographies

Mario Duarte Pinto Godoy, Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Aluno de Doutorado, Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Luiz Drude de Lacerda, Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Professor Titular, Pesquisador 1-A do CNPq, Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Universidade Federal do Ceará.

Published

2013-12-01

Issue

Section

Artigos originais