Guaporé Biological Reserve ( pt, Reserva Biológica do Guaporé is a biological reserve in the state of

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, ...

, Brazil, on the border with

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

Location

The reserve of in the

Amazon biome The Amazon biome ( pt, Bioma Amazônia) contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater and white ...

was created by decree 87,587 on 20 September 1982. The reserve is managed by the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...

. It lies in the municipalities of

Alta Floresta d'Oeste Alta Floresta d'Oeste is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Its population was 22,728 (2020) and its area is 7,067 km². It holds part of the Guaporé Biological Reserve Guaporé Biological Reserve ( pt, Reserva Bio ...

and

São Francisco do Guaporé São Francisco do Guaporé is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Its population was 20,681 (2020) and its area is 10,960 km². The municipality contains 9% of the Serra dos Reis State Park. It contains 86% of the ...

in the state of Rondônia. Altitude is from . Annual rainfall is . Temperatures range from with an average of .

Hydrology

The reserve lies in the Guaporé Depression, an extensive

pediplain In geology and geomorphology a pediplain (from the Latin ''pes'', genitive case ''pedis'', meaning "foot") is an extensive plain formed by the coalescence of pediments. The processes through which pediplains forms is known as pediplanation. The ...

with permanent wetlands and areas subject to periodic flooding by the rivers Guaporé, São Miguel, Branco and Massaco. The rivers are in the basin of the

Madeira River The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is ...

, a tributary of the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

. They have their origins in the southern foothills of the Chapada dos Parecis. In this area the Guaporé River forms the boundary between Brazil and Bolivia. The Guaporé and São Miguel rivers form the north west, west and south west borders and are of great importance as natural barriers against the encroachment of loggers and illegal farmers. The Guaporé and its tributaries, the São Miguel, Branco, São Simão, Massaco and Colorado, begin to rise in October or November, fed by rainstorms, and continue to be high until March, when there is a significant reduction in water levels in the following months. Some sections of the Guaporé and its tributaries hold large floating colonies of

Eichhornia ''Eichhornia'', commonly called water hyacinths, was a polyphyletic genus of the aquatic flowering plants family Pontederiaceae. Since it was consistently recovered in three independent lineages, it has been sunk into ''Pontederia'', together w ...

(water hyacinth) species, which sometimes clog the rivers and prevent boat traffic.

Vegetation

The vegetation is mainly dense forest apart from Chapada dos Parecis and parts of the Serra dos Pacáas Novos. There is great diversity of flora in the reserve, which is in the transition area between the

Cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are t ...

and

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

biomes, and also has species characteristic of the

Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and p ...

. Landscapes include open canopy alluvial forest in areas subject to flooding and open canopy submontane forest in areas with elevations of . The well-spaced tree forming the upper layer do not exceed in height and let light through to the dense understory, which includes many representatives of the

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

Melastomataceae Melastomataceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs, sh ...

and

Piperaceae The Piperaceae (), also known as the pepper family, are a large family of flowering plants. The group contains roughly 3,600 currently accepted species in 5 genera. The vast majority of species can be found within the two main genera: ''Piper'' ( ...

families. Common tree species include

Attalea speciosa ''Attalea speciosa'', the babassu, babassu palm, ''babaçu, or cusi'', is a palm native to the Amazon Rainforest region in South America. The babassu palm is the predominant species in the Maranhão Babaçu forests of Maranhão and Piauí states. ...

Euterpe precatoria ''Euterpe precatoria'' is a tall, slender-stemmed, pinnate-leaved palm native to Central and South America and Trinidad and Tobago. ''E. precatoria'' is used commercially to produce fruits, although ''Euterpe oleracea'' is more commonly cultivate ...

Euterpe oleracea Euterpe (; el, Εὐτέρπη, lit=rejoicing well' or 'delight , from grc, εὖ, eû, well + el, τέρπειν, térpein, to please) was one of the Muses in Greek mythology, presiding over music. In late Classical times, she was named muse ...

Leopoldinia piassaba ''Leopoldinia piassaba'', the Para piassava, piassava fiber palm or piassava palm, is a palm native to black water rivers in Amazonian Brazil and Venezuela, from which is extracted piassava, a high caliber and water resistant fiber. Piassaba fib ...

Bertholletia excelsa The Brazil nut (''Bertholletia excelsa'') is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. ...

and

Hevea brasiliensis ''Hevea brasiliensis'', the Pará rubber tree, ''sharinga'' tree, seringueira, or most commonly, rubber tree or rubber plant, is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large fami ...

. There are scattered areas of dense canopy Atlantic alluvial rain forest with emergent evergreens reaching in height. This type of vegetation includes significant numbers of palm trees and vines. Common species in these areas include

Manilkara amazonica ''Manilkara'' is a genus of trees in the family Sapotaceae. They are widespread in tropical and semitropical locations, in Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, as well as various islands in the Pacific and in the Caribbean. A ...

, Apuleia molaris, Brosimum ovatifolium, Aspidosperma album and Vochysia guianensis. The Buriti Pioneer River Formation is dominated by the

Mauritia flexuosa ''Mauritia flexuosa'', known as the moriche palm, ''ité'' palm, ''ita'', ''buriti'', ''muriti'', ''miriti'' (Brazil), ''canangucho'' (Colombia), ''acho'' (Ecuador), or ''aguaje'' (Peru), is a Arecaceae, palm tree. It grows in and near swamps and ...

(buriti palm). It is the last example of this type of vegetation in Rondonia, and covers an area of about . It is a delicate environment that provides a unique habitat for

macaw Macaws are a group of New World parrots that are long-tailed and often colorful. They are popular in aviculture or as companion parrots, although there are conservation concerns about several species in the wild. Biology Of the many differe ...

s that nest in the palms trees and

marsh deer The marsh deer (''Blastocerus dichotomus'') is the largest deer species from South America reaching a length of and a shoulder height of . It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Formerly found in much of tropical ...

that breed in the environment.

Conservation

The Biological Reserve is a "strict nature reserve" under

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is part ...

Ia. The purpose is to fully preserve the biota and other natural attributes without human interference.. Specifically it was created to protect a representative sample of the transition ecosystem between the Amazon Forest and the Cerrado, as well as samples of aquatic ecosystems of rivers, lakes, fields and flooded forests, while protecting threatened or endangered species.. Protected species are

(Blastocerus dichotomus),

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

(Panthera onca) and

giant otter The giant otter or giant river otter (''Pteronura brasiliensis'') is a South American carnivorous mammal. It is the longest member of the weasel family, Mustelidae, a globally successful group of predators, reaching up to . Atypical of musteli ...

(Pteronura brasiliensis). The reserve would be included in the proposed

Western Amazon Ecological Corridor The Western Amazon Ecological Corridor ( pt, Corredor Oeste da Amazônia) is a proposed ecological corridor connecting conservation units and indigenous territories in the southwest of the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. Background The first versi ...

References

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guapore Biological Reserve 1982 establishments in Brazil Biological reserves of Brazil Protected areas of Rondônia Protected areas established in 1982 Ramsar sites in Brazil