The Gulf of Guayaquil–Tumbes mangroves (NT1413) are an

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

located in the

Gulf of Guayaquil The Gulf of Guayaquil is a large body of water of the Pacific Ocean in western South America. Its northern limit is the city of Santa Elena, Ecuador, Santa Elena, in Ecuador, and its southern limit is Cabo Blanco, Peru, Cabo Blanco, in Peru. The ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, in northern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and southern

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. It has an area of 3,300 km² (1300 sq mi).

Location

The mangroves are found between Ecuador and Peru where many rivers empty into the Pacific and the

. They fringe the

and the northwestern Pacific Coast of Peru near Tumbes. They cover an area of . Inland the mangroves transition into areas of

Ecuadorian dry forests The Ecuadorian dry forests (NT0214) is an ecoregion near the Pacific coast of the Ecuador. The habitat has been occupied by people for centuries and has been severely damaged by deforestation, overgrazing and hillside erosion due to unsustainable ...

, Western Ecuador moist forests and in the south the

Tumbes–Piura dry forests The Tumbes–Piura dry forests (NT0232) is an arid tropical ecoregion along the Pacific coasts of southern Ecuador and northern Peru. The ecoregion contains many endemic species of flora and birds adapted to the short wet season followed by a lon ...

, which extend into Peru. The Gulf of Guayaquil is the largest estuary ecosystem on South America's Pacific coast. The flat land and high tides result in salt water moving far up the gulf. Average annual rainfall is , but in some years may be as much as .

Ecology

The ecoregion is part of the Panama Bight Mangroves, a Global ecoregion, which contains the

Gulf of Panama mangroves The Gulf of Panama mangroves (NT1414) is an ecoregion along the Pacific coast of Panama and Colombia. The mangroves experience seasonal flooding with high levels of sediment, and occasional extreme storms or very low rainfall due to El Niño effe ...

Esmeraldas–Pacific Colombia mangroves The Esmeraldas-Pacific Colombia mangroves (NT1409) is an ecoregion of mangrove forests along the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador. It is threatened by human population growth, leading to over-exploitation for wood and clearance for farming an ...

Manabí mangroves The Manabí mangroves (NT1418) is an ecoregion along the Pacific coast of Ecuador. The mangroves serve important functions in the marine and terrestrial ecology. They have been severely degraded and fragmented, particularly in the northern region. ...

and Gulf of Guayaquil–Tumbes mangroves.

Flora

The ecoregion contains plant formations of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

(''

Rhizophora ''Rhizophora'' is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the red mangrove ('' Rhizophora mangle'') but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. ''Rhizophora'' ...

'' spp.) forest that are adapted to permanently flooded conditions and the resulting environments, which offer little available oxygen. The Tumbes River is the southern limit for some mangrove species.

Fauna

There 13 mammal and reptile species, including the

American crocodile The American crocodile (''Crocodylus acutus'') is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four Extant taxon, extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida, ...

(''Crocodylus acutus'') at its southern limit. There are more than 40 species of birds including the

Neotropic cormorant The neotropic cormorant or olivaceous cormorant (''Nannopterum brasilianum'') is a medium-sized cormorant found throughout the American tropics and subtropics, from the middle Rio Grande and the Gulf and Californian coasts of the United States so ...

(''Phalacrocorax brasilianus''), white-necked heron (''Ardea pacifica''),

great egret The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, great white egret, or great white heron, is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe. R ...

(''Ardea alba''),

American white ibis The American white ibis (''Eudocimus albus'') is a species of bird in the ibis family, Threskiornithidae. It is found from the southern half of the US East Coast (from southern New Jersey, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia), along the Gulf C ...

(''Eudocimus albus''),

roseate spoonbill The roseate spoonbill (''Platalea ajaja'') is a social wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America. The roseate spoonbill's pink color is diet-derived, consisting of ...

(''Platalea ajaja''),

osprey The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It ...

(''Pandion haliaetus''), white-winged guan (''Penelope albipennis'') and

horned screamer The horned screamer (''Anhima cornuta'') is a species of bird that belongs to a relatively small family, the Anhimidae, which occurs in wetlands of tropical South America. There are three screamer species, the other two being the southern scream ...

(''Anhima cornuta'').

Status

Large parts of the mangroves have been destroyed to make way for aquaculture, rice farms, housing and industry. Other threats come from mercury pollution from gold and silver mining upstream in the Puyango-Tumbes watershed, urban pollution and dams. In Ecuador about of mangroves were lost in the 1980s and early 1990s due to unsustainable shrimp pond development. Since then the mangroves have been slowly recovering, and seem stable. On Ecuador's side of the mangrove ecoregion, particularly near the cities of

Machala Machala () is a city in south-west Ecuador. It is the capital of the El Oro Province, and is located near the Gulf of Guayaquil on fertility (soil), fertile lowlands. Machala has a population of 288,072 (2022 census); it is the sixth-biggest city ...

and Santa Rosa in the province of El Oro, many

shrimp farm Shrimp farming is a form of aquaculture that takes place in marine or freshwater environments, producing shrimp or prawns (crustaceans of the groups Caridea or Dendrobranchiata) for human consumption. However, the industry has raised concerns abou ...

ponds have been dug out for

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

of shrimp to the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and other regions. Shrimp are one of Ecuador's main exports together with

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...

and derivatives,

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s and ornamental flowers. On the Peruvian side some of the mangroves are protected by the Manglares de Tumbes National Sanctuary.

Notes

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulf of Guayaquil-Tumbes mangroves Mangrove ecoregions Ecoregions of Peru Ecoregions of Ecuador Natural history of Peru Natural history of Ecuador Neotropical ecoregions Ramsar sites in Peru Tropical Eastern Pacific