| Abstract: | The Paraná upper reaches, above the confluence with the Paraguay River, drains a predominantly humid, tropical-subtropical basin that has been extensively altered by anthropogenic activities. Deforestation followed by intense mechanized agriculture has progressively increased in the last decades. Many industrial settlements and hydroelectric impoundments have been developed. Suspended matter, total phosphorus, and inorganic nitrogen exportation rates were estimated at 14 t km?2 y?1, 28kg TP km?2 y?1 and 188kg N km ?2 y?1 respectively. These rates are compartively low when compared to other areas of the world. It was estimated that riverine mass transport represented roughly 6 per cent of the phosphorus and 20 per cent of the nitrogen inputs in the basin. Mass transport of suspended matter and soluble reactive phosphorus are lower and inorganic nitrogen higher than in 1967–1969. Siltation in the man-made lakes reduced both suspended matter and phosphorus transport. Inorganic nitrogen increase is thought to be related to increased fertilizer inputs. |
