The end of an entire biome? World's largest wetland, the Pantanal, is menaced by the Hidrovia project which is uncertain to sustainably support large-scale navigation.

The resurgent navigation project known as the Hidrovia Paraguay-Paraná threatens the integrity of the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland, which is considered a biome of its own. Intensive barge navigation is intended to transport crops (soybean, sugar, corn) and cement, iron and manganese from areas of production in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia to the oceanic ports of the Plata River. This short communication assembles the information available on the potential impacts of the planned deepening of the natural channel of the Paraguay River in its ~700 km-long upper section.

Fluvial avulsions influence soil fertility in the Pantanal wetlands (Brazil).

River avulsions drive important changes in the Pantanal wetlands, owing to their role in the hydro-sedimentology of the region. Although relevant to numerous ecosystem services, few studies have analyzed the influence of river avulsions on soil fertility in the Pantanal. Here, we use the largest ongoing avulsion in the Taquari River (Caronal region) to evaluate the effects on soil fertility, considering two factors: avulsion stage (1) and aquatic-terrestrial succession (2).

Early Aptian marine incursions in the interior of northeastern Brazil following the Gondwana breakup.

This study reports a set of primeval marine incursions identified in two drill cores, 1PS-06-CE, and 1PS-10-CE, which recovered the Barbalha Formation, Araripe Basin, Brazil. Based on a multi-proxy approach involving stratigraphy, microbiofacies, ichnofossils, and microfossils, three short-lived marine incursions were identified, designated Araripe Marine Incursions (AMI) 1-3. AMI-1 and AMI-2, which occur within the shales of the Batateira Beds (lower part of the Barbalha Formation), were identified by the occurrence of benthonic foraminifera, calcareous nannofossils, dinocysts, and a mass mortality event of non-marine ostracods.