Southwest Amazon moist forests

Coordinates: 10°10′25″S 71°30′55″W / 10.173527°S 71.515218°W / -10.173527; -71.515218
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Southwest Amazon moist forests (NT0166)
One of the rare species of the ecoregion, the bald uakari (Cacajao calvus) is restricted to várzea forests and other wooded habitats near water in the western Amazon rainforest of Brazil and Peru.[1]
Location in South America
Ecology
RealmNeotropical
BiomeTropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests
Geography
Area749,800 km2 (289,500 sq mi)
CountriesPeru, Brazil, Bolivia
Coordinates10°10′25″S 71°30′55″W / 10.173527°S 71.515218°W / -10.173527; -71.515218
Climate typeAm: equatorial, monsoonal

The Southwest Amazon moist forests (NT0166) is an ecoregion located in the Upper Amazon basin.

The forest is characterized by a relatively flat landscape with

endemic species for mammals and 782 and 17 endemics for birds
. The inaccessibility of this region, along with few roads, has kept most of the habitat intact. Also, there are a number of protected areas, which preserve this extremely biologically rich ecoregion.

Location

moriche palm
, is an economically important species dominant in some parts of the ecoregion.

The southwest Amazon moist forest region covers an extensive area of the Upper Amazon Basin comprising four sub-basins: (1) both the

Andes Mountains
. Elevations range from 300 metres (980 ft) in the west to 100 metres (330 ft) on the eastern edge of the region.

Landforms present in this region include the upland

tropical rain forest
, but some patches of open forest exist.

The ecoregion contains stretches of

Beni savanna and Bolivian Yungas. In the southwest, it adjoins the Peruvian Yungas. To the west, it adjoins the Ucayali moist forests. In the north it is separated by a band of Iquitos varzea from the Solimões–Japurá moist forests.[3]

General description of flora

Because the ecoregion covers such a vast area, there are climatic, edaphic and floristic differences within it. Generally, the wetter and less seasonal northern forests (3,000 millimetres (120 in) of rain annually) share only 44 percent of the tree species with forests in the slightly drier, more seasonal southern region. This region receives from 1,500 to 2,100 millimetres (59 to 83 in) of rain annually, in different parts. Temperatures over the year range from 22 to 27 °C (72 to 81 °F).

At first glance, large areas may appear to be homogeneous dense forests with a canopy 30 to 40 metres (98 to 131 ft) high with some emergent trees to 50 metres (160 ft) towering above the canopy.

Mauritia flexuosa and Jessenia bataua
.

In the north of the region, some of the best known plants yield products of commercial value, such as

Bertholletia excelsa
) is present in the south, but is likely not native this far west in Amazonia.

Biodiversity features

Leopardus pardalis, the ocelot, is a threatened species that finds a home in the southwest Amazon moist forests.

What is distinctive about this region is the diversity of habitats created by edaphic, topographic and climatic variability.

Javari River. This ecoregion has the highest number of mammals recorded for the Amazonian biogeographic realm: 257 with 11 endemics. Bird richness is also highest here with 782 species and 17 endemics. In the southern part of the Tambopata Reserve, one area that is 50 square kilometres (19 sq mi) holds the record for bird species: 554. On the white sand areas in the north, plants endemic to this soil type include Jacqueshuberia loretensis, Ambelania occidentalis, Spathelia terminalioides, and Hirtella revillae
.

Many widespread Amazonian mammals and reptiles find a home in this region.

Leopardus pardalis
).

Pygmy marmosets (

Saguinus mystax
, which occurs on the southwest side of the Amazon-Ucayali system.

In the region of Manu, 68 species of reptiles and 68 species of amphibians have been reported for the lowland areas while 113 species of amphibians and 118 species of reptiles are reported from Madre de Dios, including the rare and interesting pit-vipers (Bothrops bilineatus, Bothrops brazili), and frogs such as Dendrophidion sp., Rhadinaea occipitalis, and Xenopholis scalaris.[2]

Current status

Manú National Park
.

Much of the natural habitat of the region remains intact, protected by sheer inaccessibility.[2] People have dwelled along the major rivers for millennia and have subtly altered the forests on a small scale, but around the urban centers development proceeds. Very few roads exist in the region, limiting development. Intense deforestation is constrained to the few roads that do exist or around urban centers such as Iquitos, Puerto Maldonado, and Rio Branco.

Antimari State Forest, Apurimac Reserve Zone
, among others. Most protected areas suffer from insufficient administration and patrol.

Types and severity of threats

The invasive Guadua bamboo is threatening the natural ecodiversity of the region.

Hunting may be threatening populations of the tapir (

primates in the north.[2] Some habitat is threatened by expansion of the agricultural and pastoral frontier, gold mining, and selective logging that erodes the genetic diversity of a few valuable timber species. The economically important palm Euterpe precatoria is being depleted in some areas by unsustainable palm heart extraction. A dramatic problem that exists in the Brazilian State of Acre and in the adjacent area of Peru is the spread of the invasive Guadua bamboo forests. This highly competitive bamboo invades and dominates abandoned clearings and threatens to dominate the disturbed areas in this region. Logging along major rivers and near urban centers has decimated populations of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata), and kapok (Ceiba pentandra
).

During the period from 2004 to 2011 the ecoregion experienced an annual rate of habitat loss of 0.17%.[5]

References

As of this edit, this article uses content from "Southwest Amazon moist forests", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL
. All relevant terms must be followed.

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T3416A9846330.en
    .
  2. ^
    World Wildlife Fund (26 August 2008). "Southwest Amazon moist forests". In Mark McGinley (ed.). Encyclopedia of Earth
    . Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  3. ^ WildFinder – WWF.
  4. PMID 24003317
    .
  5. ^ Coca-Castro et al. 2013, p. 12.

Sources

  • Coca-Castro, Alejandro; Reymondin, Louis; Bellfield, Helen; Hyman, Glenn (January 2013), Land use Status and Trends in Amazonia (PDF), Amazonia Security Agenda Project, archived from the original (PDF) on 19 March 2016, retrieved 24 March 2017
  • WildFinder, WWF: World Wildlife Fund, retrieved 11 March 2017

Further reading

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