Limnological Patterns in Northern Pantanal Lagoons

The aim of this work was to correlate the limnological patterns recorded among ten lagoons in the northern part of the Pantanal of Mato Grosso with some aspects of the lagoons related to their physical and biological characteristics. Some lagoon characteristics, such as connection with the river and the presence of floating macrophytes were important to group similar lagoons into categories. Attempts were also made to determine which kind of the nutrients could be limiting phytoplankton productivity in the lagoons of the northern Pantanal. Data was collected in nine lagoons during the flooding stage in January 2004, and nutrient and chlorophyll a was followed in a tenth lagoon from June 2004 to October 2004. The phytoplankton biomass was significantly associated with the nitrogen concentration during the flooding and drought periods. All the studied lagoons were potentially limited by the nitrogen concentration with a strong negative relationship between the chlorophyll a biomass and ammonium concentration during the drought season. The drought season also had nearly three times more chlorophyll a biomass when compared to the flooding period.