Atlantic Forest

Coordinates: 16°30′S 39°15′W / 16.500°S 39.250°W / -16.500; -39.250
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the biome in north-western Europe, see North Atlantic moist mixed forests.
Atlantic Forest
Mata Atlântica
Area of the Atlantic Forest in Serra do Mar
Map
Map of the Atlantic Forest ecoregions as delineated by the WWF. The yellow line approximately encloses the forest's distribution.
(Satellite image from NASA)
Geography
LocationArgentina, Brazil, Paraguay
Area1,315,460 km2 (507,900 sq mi)
Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Atlantic Forest in Bahia State, Brazil
LocationBrazil
IncludesUna Biological Reserve, PAU Brazil CEPLAC Experimental Station, Veracruz Station, Pau Brasil National Park, Descobrimento National Park, Monte Pascoal National Park, Linhares Forest Reserve and Sooretama Biological Reserve
CriteriaNatural: ix, x
Reference892
Inscription1999 (23rd Session)
Area111,930 ha
Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves
UNESCO World Heritage Site
View from a trail in the Salto Morato Reserve
Official nameAtlantic Forest South-East Reserves
LocationParaná and São Paulo, Brazil
Includes25 protected areas
CriteriaNatural: (vii)(ix)(x)
Reference893rev
Inscription1999 (23rd Session)
Area468,193 ha (1,807.70 sq mi)
Coordinates24°10′S 48°0′W / 24.167°S 48.000°W / -24.167; -48.000

The Atlantic Forest (Portuguese: Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina, where the region is known as Selva Misionera.

The Atlantic Forest has

ecoregions within the following biome categories: seasonal moist and dry broad-leaf tropical forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, and mangrove forests. The Atlantic Forest is characterized by a high biodiversity and endemism.[1]

It was the first environment that the Portuguese colonists encountered over 500 years ago, when it was thought to have had an area of 1,000,000–1,500,000 km2 (390,000–580,000 sq mi), and stretching an unknown distance inland, making it, back then, the second largest rainforest on the planet, only behind the Amazon rainforest.[2] Over 85% of the original area has been deforested, threatening many plant and animal species with extinction.[3][4][5]

Ecology

The Atlantic Forest region includes forests of several variations:

The Atlantic Forest is unusual in that it extends as a true

tropical rain forest to latitudes as far as 28°S. This is because the trade winds
produce precipitation throughout the southern winter. In fact, the northern Zona da Mata of northeastern Brazil receives much more rainfall between May and August than during the southern summer. The geographic range of Atlantic Forest vary depending on author or institution that published them. Information on four most important boundaries as well as their union and intersection was reviewed in 2018.[9]

Geography

The Atlantic Forest mainly covers regions of eastern Brazil (92% of the total area), but also reaches eastern Paraguay (6%) and northeastern Argentina (2%).[10]

History

During glacial periods in the Pleistocene, the Atlantic Forest is known to have shrunk to extremely small fragmented refugia in highly sheltered gullies, being separated by areas of dry forest or semi-deserts known as caatingas.[7] Some maps even suggest the forest actually survived in moist pockets well away from the coastline where its endemic rainforest species mixed with much cooler-climate species. Unlike refugia for equatorial rainforests, the refuges for the Atlantic Forest have never been the product of detailed identification.

Biodiversity

A jaguar

Despite having only 28% of native vegetation cover remaining,

amphibians, birds, and mammals have become extinct due to the result of human activity in the past 400 years. Over 11,000 species of plants and animals are considered threatened today in the Atlantic Forest.[7] Over 52% of the tree species and 92% of the amphibians are endemic to this area. The forest harbors around 20,000 species of plants, with almost 450 tree species being found in just one hectare in some locations.[15]

The Atlantic Forest is one of the best studied tropical ecosystems. For example, over 3000 tree species, 98 bat species, 94 large or medium-sized mammal species, over 2000 epiphyte species, 26 primate species, 528 amphibian species, 124 small mammal species, and over 800 bird species have been recorded in the Atlantic Forest.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

New species are continually being found in the Atlantic Forest. In fact, between 1990 and 2006 over a thousand new

Bradypus torquatus) because of its long hair, is endemic to the Atlantic Forest.[26] Hylid tree frog Dendropsophus branneri is also endemic to the Atlantic Forest.[27]


Conservation

Human impact

Atlantic Forest Fragmentation
urban areas. This deforestation
continues at an annual rate of 0.5% and up to 2.9% in urban areas.

Agriculture: A major portion of human
biofuel crops.[13]
Pasture: Even more common than using land for agriculture is the
slash and burn
which increases a forest chance of human-induced burning.
Hunting: Species in a fragmented forest are more susceptible to decline in population size because they are in a confined area that is more accessible to hunters. Larger animals make up the highest percentage of biomass. These animals are also the most rewarding to hunters and are heavily hunted in accessible fragments. This results in a change in species interactions such as seed dispersal and competition for resources.
Logging:
fires. Additionally, logging roads create accessibility for humans; and therefore increases the amount of human land disturbances and decreases the amount of natural forest.[30]
Fire: Human activity such as logging causes an increase in debris along forest floors that makes the Atlantic Forest more susceptible to fires. This is a forest type that is not accustomed to regular fire activity, so human induced fires dramatically affect the forest understory because plants do not have fire adaptations. In result, the forest becomes even more vulnerable to secondary fires, which are far more destructive and kill many more species including large trees.[30]

Results of human activity

Habitat fragmentation leads to a cascade of alterations of the original forest landscape.[13] For example, the extent of human disturbances, including habitat destruction, in the Atlantic Forest has led to an extinction crisis.[31] The endemic species in this region are especially vulnerable to extinction due to fragmentation because of their small geographic ranges and low occurrence.[32] In a study of the Atlantic Forest fragments, community level biomass was reduced to 60% in plots less than 25 hectares.[33] Key ecological processes such as seed dispersal, gene flow, colonization and other processes are disturbed by fragmentation.[33] With many key vertebrate seed dispersers going extinct, it is predicted that many regional, fruit-bearing tree species in the Atlantic forest will become extinct due to failure of seedling recruitment and recolonisation.[29] With all these species already threatened, it is predicted that with the persistence of current deforestation rates the Atlantic forest will see continued extinction of species.[31]

Conservation by nongovernmental organizations

Due to the Atlantic Forest's vast diversity of endemic plants and animals as well as the fragmentation affecting these species, many groups and organizations are working to restore this unique

Brazilian Environmental Movement.[34] One organization, called BirdLife International, uses its research to preserve the area's bird biodiversity and teach people about sustainable natural resource use.[34]

Some organizations receive grants from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund if they abide by its rules.[34] These include the Species Protection Program, the Program for Supporting Private Natural Heritage Reserves and the Institutional Strengthening Program.

Another strategy being implemented to maintain biodiversity within the Atlantic Forest is creating

Nature Conservancy, are planning to restore parts of the forest that have been lost and to build corridors that are compatible with the lifestyles of the native people.[37] The Amazon Institute is active in reforestation efforts in the northeastern state of Pernambuco
, Brazil. During 2007, Joao Milanez and Joanne Stanulonis have planted 5,500 new trees in the mountains commencing with Gravata, adding to the precious little, ancient forest left.

The Pact for Atlantic Forest Restoration has assembled over 100 businesses, nongovernmental and governmental organizations around the goal of having 15 million hectares of the original ecosystem restored by 2050.[38]

The

Araucaria moist forest ecoregion of approximately 3.100 ha called Pró-Mata, near the city of São Francisco de Paula in the state of Rio Grande do Sul
. This reserve is used for research and biodiversity conservation.

Ecoregions

Atlantic forest in Curitiba (Brazil).
Myiornis auricularis
in the Atlantic forest of the state biological reserve of Aguaí

Terrestrial ecoregions
within the Atlantic Forest Biome include:

Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Mangrove forests

See also

References

  1. ^ Dafonseca, G. 1985. The Vanishing Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Biological Conservation 34:17-34.
  2. ^ Por, Francis Dov. 1992. Sooretama: the Atlantic rain forest of Brazil. The Hague: SPB Academic Pub.
  3. ^ "The Atlantic Forest". The Nature Conservancy.
  4. ^ "Atlantic Forests, South America". WWF.
  5. doi:10.1126/science.abq5099
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-89327-498-6
  7. ^ a b c d Galindo Leal, Carlos, and Ibsen de Gusmão Câmara. 2003. The Atlantic Forest of South America: biodiversity status, threats, and outlook. Washington: Island Press.
  8. ^ Saporetti-Junior et al 2011.
  9. ISSN 2177-6199
    .
  10. ^ Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina & WWF (2017). State of the Atlantic Forest: Three countries, 148 million people, one of the richest forests on Earth (PDF). Puerto Iguazú, Argentina.: Technical Report. p. 146.
  11. ISSN 2530-0644
    .
  12. PMID 33311511
    .
  13. ^ a b c Tabarelli, Marcelo, Antonio Venceslau Aguiar, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Jean Paul Metzger, and Carlos A. Peres. "Prospects for Biodiversity Conservation in the Atlantic Forest: Lessons from Aging Human-modified Landscapes." Biological Conservation 143.10 (2010): 2328-340.
  14. ^ de la Sancha, Noé U., Sarah A. Boyle, and Nancy E. McIntyre. "Identifying structural connectivity priorities in eastern Paraguay's fragmented Atlantic Forest." Scientific reports 11, no. 1 (2021): 16129. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95516-3
  15. ^ World Wildlife Fund: Atlantic Forest Archived 2010-04-06 at the Wayback Machine. World Wildlife Fund. 29 November 2011.
  16. PMID 33311511
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  17. S2CID 73437737
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  18. S2CID 182951440
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  19. S2CID 52979277
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  20. S2CID 49589547
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  21. PMID 28500789
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  22. S2CID 21908829
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  23. PMID 29266462
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  24. ^ Reaka-Kudla, Marjorie L, Don E. Wilson, and Edward O. Wilson. Biodiversity II: Understanding and Protecting Our Biological Resources. Washington, D.C: Joseph Henry Press, 1997.
  25. ^ Pontes, A., A. Malta, and P. Asfora. 2006. A new species of capuchin monkey, genus Cebus erxleben (Cebidae, Primates): found at the very brink of extinction in the Pernambuco Endemism Centre. Zootaxa:1-12.
  26. ^ Cassano, C., M. Kierulff, and A. Chiarello. 2011. The cacao agroforests of the Brazilian Atlantic forest as habitat for the endangered maned sloth Bradypus torquatus. Mammalian Biology 76:243-250.
  27. S2CID 90234341
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  28. S2CID 26608375
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  29. ^
    hdl:10535/3497
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  30. ^
    Laurance, William F.
    , and Diana C. Useche. "Environmental Synergisms and Extinctions of Tropical Species." Conservation Biology 23.6 (2009): 1427-437.
  31. ^ a b Brooks, Thomas M., Mittermeier, Russell A., Mittermeier, Cristina G., Da Fonseca, Gustavo A. B., Konstant, William R., Flick, Penny, Pilgrim, John, Oldfield, Sara, Magin, Georgina, Hilton-Taylor, Craig. “Habitat Loss and Extinction in the Hotspots of Biodiversity.” Pérdida de Hábitat y Extinciones en Áreas Críticas para la Biodiversidad 16.4 (2002).
  32. ^ Patterson, B.D. & W. Atmar. "Analyzing species composition in fragments." Bonner Zoologische Monographen 46 (2000): Pp. 9-24.
  33. ^ a b Pütz, J. Groeneveld, L.F. Alves, J.P. Metzger, A. Huth. "Fragmentation drives tropical forest fragments to early successional states: A modelling study for Brazilian Atlantic forests." Ecological Modelling, 222. 12 (2011), pp. 1986-1997.
  34. ^
    Biodiversity Hotspots
    - Home. 03 Oct. 2011.
  35. ^ Iniciativa BNDES Mata Atlântica
  36. ^ São Paulo Expands Atlantic Forest Protection Coverage. WWF Brasil. 03 Oct. 2011.
  37. ^ About the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. Nature Conservancy | Protecting Nature, Preserving Life. 03 Oct. 2011.
  38. ^ Pact for Atlantic Forest Restoration

Bibliography

  • Saporetti-Junior, Amilcar Walter; Schaefer, Carlos Ernesto G. Reynaud; de Souza, Agostinho Lopes; Soares, Michellia Pereira; Araújo, Dorothy Sue Dunn; Meira-Neto, João Augusto Alves (21 September 2011). "Influence of Soil Physical Properties on Plants of the Mussununga Ecosystem, Brazil". Folia Geobotanica. 47 (1): 29–39.
    S2CID 17406247
    .

External links

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