Mata Atlântica

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Mata Atlântica is the Atlantic Coastal Rain Forest formerly covering the wet coastal hills along the Atlantic coast of Brazil (mostly in the Serra do Mar), and also extending inland as far as Paraguay and the Misiones province of Argentina. Mata Atlântica is a characteristic biome, now designated a World Biosphere Reserve, which contains a large number of highly endangered species including the well known marmosets and golden lion tamarins. It has been extensively cleared since colonial times, mainly for the farming of sugar cane and for urban settlements. The remnant is estimated to be less than 10% of the original and that is often broken into hilltop islands.

The Mata Atlântica is unusual in that it extends as a true tropical rainforest to latitudes as high as 24°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.

During glacial periods, however, the Mata Atlântica is known to have shrunk to extremely small refugia in highly sheltered gullies, with most of the land area more recently occupied by the characteristic Mata Atlântica being occupied by dry forest or even semi-desert. 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 Mata Atlântica have never been the product of detailed identification.

External links

World Heritage Sites in Brazil

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