NUMERICAL MODELING OF FISH EGGS TRANSPORT IN THE BACWATER OF THE JIRAU HYDROPOWER DAM, MADEIRA RIVER - BRAZIL

Maria de Lourdes Cavalcanti Barros¹; Paulo Cesar Colonna Rosman¹

¹ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-2254

Resumo

The Madeira River has over 950 species of fish, some of which are rare among the world ichthyological collections. Many of these are migratory species impact the reproductive stocks that live in the Amazon River. However, numerical simulations to predict fish eggs transport have been scarce in hydropower plants studies in the Amazonian rivers. This work concerns the investigation of the processes controlling the transport of fish eggs in the backwater of the Jirau Dam at the Madeira River in the Central Brazilian Amazonian region. The model regards the fish eggs as passive particles, and adopts a second order Lagrangian scheme coupled with the hydrodynamic model of the software SisBaHiA (Base System for Environmental Hydrodynamic). Numerical results are analyzed in terms of the hydrological and meteorological conditions controlling the transport of eggs and the extension of their excursion, from upstream up to the dam. The results also couple biological and physical information in order to improve studies concerning fish eggs transport, allowing a better understanding of their dynamics, essential for environmental studies of the area.

Palavras-chave: Fish eggs transport; environmental modeling; finite element method; Jirau Dam