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This article looks at a remarkable area of the Amazon rainforest where the water level between dry and wet seasons changes by an astounding 50ft (13m) creating a temporary lake the size of Switzerland. In the wet season large areas of the rainforest disappear completely under the water. This creates an extraordinary dichotomy where, in one season monkeys and lizards scamper along the branches of the trees and, in another, pink dolphins chase fruit-eating fish through the very same branches.
More than 2000 species of fish depend on this flood to migrate and breed. Many of these species are fruit-eating and carry out the role of seed dispersal agents which in other forests is performed by birds. Small Amazonian fishing communities in turn rely on catching fruit-eating fish for their subsistence and this feature documents the remarkable work being carried out by one community, near Santarem in Brazil, where fish are being caught by harpoon rather than in nets, whose children are planting trees for the fish! In this and other ways the community is hoping to ensure a sustainable living for their children when they grow up.
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