Changes in floodplain hydrology following serial damming of the Tocantins River in the eastern Amazon

Highlights: • Amazonian rivers are under increasing pressure for hydropower production. • The Tocantins River has the highest number of dams in Amazon. • Measured and modeled changes in floodplain inundation after damming • Flood extent and hydroperiod decreased and flood initiation delayed after damming • Cascade dams alter hydrology and disconnect Amazonian rivers and their floodplains. Riparian forests are ecotones that link aquatic and terrestrial habitats, providing ecosystem services including sediment control and nutrient regulation. Riparian forest function is intimately linked to river hydrology and floodplain dynamics, which can be severely altered by dams. The Tocantins River in the eastern Amazon has six mega-dams along its course. To understand the large-scale and cumulative impacts of multiple dams on the Tocantins floodplain, we quantified landscape-scale changes in floodplain extent, hydroperiod, and flood timing on a 145-km stretch of the river downstream of five dams. We used water level data from 1985 to 2019 to compare daily floodplain inundation dynamics before and after damming. We also developed models to examine the impacts of climate and land use change on hydrology of the Tocantins River. After installation of the first dam in 1998, an average of 82.3 km² (63%) of the floodplain no longer flooded, overall average hydroperiod decreased by 15 days (11%), and flooding started an average of five days earlier. After all five dams were installed, 72% of the average pre-dam flooded area no longer flooded, average hydroperiod had decreased by 35%, and average inundation onset occurred 12 days later. These changes in floodplain hydrology appeared to be driven primarily by dam operations as we found no significant changes in precipitation over the study period. Increasing loss of natural vegetation in the watershed may play a role in changed hydrology but cannot explain the abrupt loss of floodplain extent after the first dam was installed. This is one of few studies to quantify dam-induced floodplain alteration at a landscape scale and to investigate impacts of multiple dams on a landscape. Our results indicate that the Tocantins River floodplain is undergoing drastic hydrologic alteration. The impacts of multiple dams are cumulative and non-linear, especially for hydroperiod and flood timing.