River Continuum Concept in the Andean Mountain Rivers, case study in Rioclaro River (Colombia)

The Rioclaro River Sub-basin is one of the main streams of the Chinchiná River Basin which is located in the South Central region of the department of Caldas (Colombia) on the Western slope of the Central Mountain Range of the Colombian Andes and belongs to the Magdalena-Cauca hydrographic zone. In this research, a baseline was created for developing strategis of adaptation to Climate Change framework and the theory of River Continuum Concept based on Vannote`s theory of continuous rivers with the adaptation to tropical systems by Wantzen and Wagner was analyzed. The Rioclaro River Basin is an Andean Mountain River that has not been intervened severely as other streams in the Coffee region (Colombian Andes) and is a good example for this study. Pristine rivers is a characteristic that is necessary for the fulfillment of the River Continuum Concept. The research is supported mainly by secondary information extracted from available studies for the area and compiled from the Environmental Management Plan of the Chinchiná River Basin (POMCA in Spanish). As complimentary data to perform this research work, a pair of integrated sampling campaigns of water quantity, water quality, sediment transport and biota in the river was carried out. Throug out hydraulical, physical-chemical, sedimentological and biotic variables were monitored along the river in four monitoring sites, which allowed to understand and complement the available information. The main results of these water monitoring campaigns was also presented in this research to consolidate a Baseline as a reference in future studies of adaptive strategies of Climate Change in Colombia. The dynamics of the hydrobiological continuity along the Rioclaro River was determined, taking into account the relevance at the trophic level and its climatic susceptibility. Therefore preliminary results show the Continuum Concept in the Rioclaro River Basin, and it indicates that the River Continuum Concept can be applied in the Andean Mountain Rivers.