Between cooking pot and frying pan - adaptations of Neotropical floodplain animals to the hydrological cycle.

The change between flood (water current, variable oxygen conditions) and drought (heat, even fire) conditions in floodplains represents an evolutionary laboratory par excellence. Do floodplains harbor more or less animal species than permanently wet or dry ecosystems?

How can we fathom the diversity of animals that may appear only once during an annual or pluriannual flood pulse cycle? Which adaptive mechanisms have evolved to cope with adverse conditions? What can we (humans) learn from these mechanisms for technology and better living? Based on more than 20 years of research experience in the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the World, Karl M.

Wantzen's talk may provide some answers.