RESULTS
The effective area of about 16% of the studied catchments was larger
than double (dark blue circles on the coast) of their corresponding
topographic areas. On the other hand, 13% of the effective catchment
areas were smaller than half (dark red circles in the northeast) of
their topographic areas (Figure 3, the histogram is available in S2). A
clear pattern was noted in Caatinga, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest
although we did not observe a clear tendency of an ECI sign in the
Amazon, Pampa, and Pantanal biomes. In the Caatinga (predominantly
semiarid region) and the Cerrado biomes, our analysis demonstrated that
catchments have their effective area smaller than the topographic area
whilst most catchments presented the effective area larger than the
topographic area in the Atlantic Forest biome.
[Insert Figure 3]