By Jack Walker, Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The research of Carolina Arantes might focus on a region more than 3,000 miles away from WVU’s Morgantown campus, but its implications reach as far as rural West Virginia.
Arantes, an assistant professor at West Virginia University’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, who has long studied the relationship between Amazon communities and ecosystems, has recently been examining the impact of mega dams constructed along the Madeira River, which extends across Bolivia and Brazil.
These dams were constructed to create hydropower, converting the flow of water into electricity. While hydropower can be a beneficial means of generating energy, Arantes said that, like any form of environmental modification, it has changed the experiences of people and other organisms who call the Madeira River region home.
Specifically, Arantes said her work focuses on fishing in the river. She is researching how the construction of hydropower dams changed the fishing industry socioeconomically, as well as how it impacted fish abundance and biodiversity.
“My research program in general is addressing the effects of global processes [on] aquatic systems and biodiversity,” Arantes said.
