The Atlantic Forest ( pt, 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 Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

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 Dry or dryness most often refers to: * Lack of rainfall, which may refer to ** Arid regions ** Drought * Dry or dry area, relating to legal prohibition of selling, serving, or imbibing alcoholic beverages * Dry humor, deadpan * Dryness (medica ...

broad-leaf tropical forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, and

mangrove forests A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

. The Atlantic Forest is characterized by a high biodiversity and endemism. It was the first environment that the Portuguese colonists encountered over 500 years ago, when it was thought to have had an area of , and stretching an unknown distance inland, making it, back then, the second largest rainforest on the planet, only behind the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

. Over 85% of the original area has been

deforested Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

, threatening many plant and animal species with extinction.

Ecology

The Atlantic Forest region includes forests of several variations: *

Restinga Restingas () are a distinct type of coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in eastern Brazil. They form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium-sized trees and shrubs adapted to the drier and nut ...

is a forest type that grows on stabilized coastal dunes. Restinga forests are generally closed canopy short forests with tree density. Open restinga is an open, savanna-like formation with scattered clumps of small trees and shrubs and an extensive layer of herbs, grasses, and sedges.Thomas, William Wayt, and Elizabeth G. Britton. 2008. The Atlantic coastal forest of Northeastern Brazil. Bronx, N.Y.: The New York Botanical Garden Press. * Seasonal tropical moist forests may receive more than 2000 mm of rain a year. These include Tropical Moist: Lowland Forests, Submontane Forest, and Montane Forests. *

Tabuleiro forests Tabuleiro is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion of Zona da Mata and to the microregion of Ubá. As of 2020, the estimated population was 3,708. See also * List of municipalities in ...

are found over very moist clay soils and Tabuleiro Savannas occur over faster-draining sand soils. These are humid areas that rely on water vapor from the ocean.Galindo Leal, Carlos, and Ibsen de Gusmão Câmara. 2003. The Atlantic Forest of South America: biodiversity status, threats, and outlook. Washington: Island Press. * Further inland are the

Atlantic dry forests The Atlantic dry forests are a tropical dry forest ecoregion of the Atlantic Forest Biome, located in eastern Brazil. Setting The Atlantic dry forests cover an area of , lying between the Cerrado savannas of central Brazil and the Caatinga dry s ...

, which form a transition between the arid Caatinga to the northeast and the Cerrado savannas to the east. These forests are lower in stature; more open, with high abundance of deciduous trees and lower diversity when compared to tropical moist forests. These forests have between 700–1600 mm of precipitation annually with a distinct dry season. This includes Deciduous and Semideciduous Seasonal Forest each with their own lowland and montane regions. * Montane forests are higher altitude wet forests across mountains and plateaus of southern Brazil. Also called Araucaria moist forests. * The Mussununga forests occur in southern Bahia and northern Espirito Santo states. The Mussununga ecosystem ranges from grasslands to woodlands associated with sandy spodosols. The word ''Mussununga'' is Amerindian Tupi-Guarani meaning soft and wet white sand. * Shrubby montane savannas occur at the highest elevations, also called

Campo rupestre The ''campo rupestre'' ("rupestrian grassland") is a discontinuous montane subtropical ecoregion occurring across three different biomes in Brazil: Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and Caatinga. Originally, ''campo rupestre'' was used to characterize the ...

. 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.

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%).

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. Some maps even suggest the forest actually survived in moist pockets well away from the coastline where its endemic

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

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

Jaguar (Panthera onca palustris) male Three Brothers River

Despite having only 28% of native vegetation cover remaining, the Atlantic Forest remains extraordinarily lush in biodiversity and endemic species, many of which are threatened with extinction. Approximately 40 percent of its vascular plants and up to 60 percent of its vertebrates are endemic species, meaning they are found nowhere else in the world.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. The official threatened species list of Brazil contains over 140 terrestrial mammal species found in Atlantic Forest. In Paraguay there are 35 species listed as threatened, and 22 species are listed as threatened in the interior portion of the Atlantic Forest of Argentina. Nearly 250 species of

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

, 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. 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. 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. New species are continually being found in the Atlantic Forest. In fact, between 1990 and 2006 over a thousand new flowering plants were discovered. Furthermore, in 1990 researchers re-discovered a small population of the black-faced lion tamarin (''

Leontopithecus caissara The four species of lion tamarins or maned marmosets make up the genus ''Leontopithecus''. They are small New World monkeys named for the mane surrounding their face, similar to the mane of a lion. Description Living in the eastern rainforests ...

'', previously thought to have been extinct. A new species of blonde capuchin (''

Cebus queirozi The blond capuchin (''Sapajus flavius'') is a species of capuchin monkey endemic to northeastern Brazil. This endangered species was rediscovered in 2006. It can live in exceptionally large groups of over 150 individuals, and like other capuchin ...

''), named for its distinguishing bright blonde hair, was discovered in northeastern Brazil at the Pernambuco Endemism Center in 2006. A species of endangered three-toed sloth, named the maned sloth (''

Bradypus torquatus The maned sloth (''Bradypus torquatus'') is a three-toed sloth that is native to South America. It is one of four species of three-toed sloths belonging to the suborder Xenarthra and are placental mammals. They are endemic to the Atlantic coasta ...

'') because of its long hair, is endemic to the Atlantic Forest. Hylid tree frog ''

Dendropsophus branneri ''Dendropsophus branneri'' is a small Tree frog, hylid tree frog endemic to the Atlantic Forest region of Brazil. It feeds mainly on Arthropod, arthropods and is preyed upon by various invertebrates (e.g., giant aquatic bugs, spiders) and vertebr ...

'' is also endemic to the Atlantic Forest.

Conservation

Human impact

Hillside deforestation in Rio de Janeiro

The incorporation of modern human societies and their needs for forest resources has greatly reduced the size of the Atlantic Forest, which has resulted in species impoverishment. Almost 88% of the original forest habitat has been lost and replaced by human-modified landscapes including pastures, croplands, and 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 land use in the Atlantic Rain Forest is for agriculture. Crops include sugar-cane, coffee, tea, tobacco and more recently soybean and

biofuel crops Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for energy production by combustion (not for food). The crops are processed into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as pellets, bioethanol or biogas. The fuels are burned to g ...

. :Pasture: Even more common than using land for agriculture is the conversion of forest to cattle pastures.{{cite journal , url=http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art3/ , title=Thirty Years of Human Demography and Land-Use Change in the Atlantic Forest of Misiones, Argentina: an Evaluation of the Forest Transition Model , author1=IIzquierdo, Andrea E. , author2=Carlos D. De Angelo , author3=T. Mitchell Aide , name-list-style=amp , journal= Ecology and Society , year=2008 , volume=13 , issue=2 , pages=3. (online), doi=10.5751/ES-02377-130203 , doi-access=free This is commonly done by method of 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 an confined area that is more accessible to hunters. Larger animals make up the highest percentage of

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

. 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:

Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

removes 10 to 80% of the canopy cover of a forest making that habitat more susceptible to natural elements such as wind and sunlight. This causes an increase in forest heating and

desiccation Desiccation () is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic (attracts and holds water) substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container. ...

Laurance, William F. William F. Laurance (born 12 October 1957), also known as Bill Laurance, is Distinguished Research Professor at James Cook University, Australia and has been elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He has received an Australian ...

, and Diana C. Useche. "Environmental Synergisms and Extinctions of Tropical Species." ''Conservation Biology'' 23.6 (2009): 1427-437. Large amounts of organic litter and debris builds up which results in an increase in forests vulnerability to fires. Additionally, logging roads create accessibility for humans; and therefore increases the amount of human land disturbances and decreases the amount of natural forest. :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.

Results of human activity

Habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological processes ...

leads to a cascade of alterations of the original forest landscape. For example, the extent of human disturbances, including habitat destruction, in the Atlantic Forest has led to an extinction crisis.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). The endemic species in this region are especially vulnerable to extinction due to fragmentation because of their small geographic ranges and low occurrence. In a study of the Atlantic Forest fragments, community level biomass was reduced to 60% in plots less than 25 hectares.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. Key ecological processes such as seed dispersal,

gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration or geneflow and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent a ...

, colonization and other processes are disturbed by fragmentation. 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. 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.

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 ecosystem. Non-governmental organizations (NGO) are huge benefactors in Brazil, providing funding as well as professional help to the Atlantic Forest due to the

Brazilian Environmental Movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advo ...

.Biodiversity Hotspots - Atlantic Forest - Conservation Action
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323223759/http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/xp/Hotspots/atlantic_forest/pages/conservation.aspx , date=March 23, 2012 . ''

Biodiversity Hotspots A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the co ...

'' - Home. 03 Oct. 2011. One organization, called

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

, uses its research to preserve the area's bird biodiversity and teach people about sustainable natural resource use. Some organizations receive grants from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund if they abide by its rules. 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 wildlife corridors. The World Bank is donating $44 million to create a corridor, which will be known as the

Central Biodiversity Corridor Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, in the Atlantic Forest and one in the Amazon. The Brazilian Development Bank has been financing, with non-reimbursable loans, 16 to 18 ecosystem restoration projects totaling 3,500 hectares and costing approximately $22 million under the so-called Iniciativa BNDES Mata Atlântica. In order to preserve diversity, the state of Sao Paulo has created the

Restinga de Bertioga State Park The Restinga de Bertioga State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual Restinga de Bertioga) is a state park in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It protects an area of restinga, mangroves and dense rainforest on the coast of São Paulo. The park provides an ...

, a 9.3 thousand hectares park which also serves as a wildlife corridor linking the coastal regions to the Serra do Mar mountain range. Some organizations, such as the 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. The

Amazon Institute 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 co ...

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.Pact for Atlantic Forest Restoration
/ref> The Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul keeps a private reserve of 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

. This reserve is used for research and biodiversity conservation.

Ecoregions

Terrestrial ecoregions within the Atlantic Forest Biome include: ; Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests *

Alto Paraná Atlantic forests The Alto Paraná Atlantic forests, also known as the Paraná-Paraíba interior forests, is an ecoregion of the tropical moist forests biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. It is located in southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, ...

* Araucaria moist forests *

Atlantic Coast restingas The Atlantic Coast restingas is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. It is located along Brazil's Atlantic coast, from the country's northeast to its southeast. ...

Bahia coastal forests The Bahia coastal forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of eastern Brazil, part of the larger Atlantic Forest region. Setting The Bahia coastal forests occupy a belt approximately wide along the Atlantic coast of eastern Braz ...

Bahia interior forests The Bahia interior forests is an ecoregion of eastern Brazil. It is part of the larger Atlantic forests biome complex, and lies between the Bahia coastal forests and the dry shrublands and savannas of Brazil's interior. Setting The Bahia interior ...

Caatinga enclaves moist forests The Caatinga enclaves moist forests is an ecoregion of the Tropical moist forests Biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. It is located in northeastern Brazil. The ecoregion forms a series of discontinuous, island-like enclaves amo ...

* Pernambuco coastal forests * Pernambuco interior forests * Serra do Mar coastal forests ; Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests *

; Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands * Campos rupestres ;

Mangrove forests A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

Bahia mangroves The Bahia mangroves is a tropical ecoregion of the mangroves biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome, located in Northeastern Brazil. Its conservation status is considered to be critical/endangered due to global climate change and oth ...

Ilha Grande mangroves The Ilha Grande mangroves ecoregion (WWF ID: NT1415) covers a series of disconnected salt-water and brackish mangrove forests along the southeastern coast of Brazil on the South Atlantic Ocean. The ecoregion is defined as covering the mangroves f ...

Rio Piranhas mangroves The Rio Piranhas mangroves ecoregion (WWF ID: NT1432) covers a series of mangrove forests along the Atlantic Ocean coast of the eastern tip of Brazil. The mangrove sections are spread across 350 km, from the mouth of the Mamanguape River in ...

Rio São Francisco mangroves The Rio Sao Francisco mangroves ecoregion (WWF ID: NT1433) covers series of mangrove forests along the Atlantic Ocean coast of eastern Brazil, from the outskirts of Maceió southwards to just south of Salvador, Bahia. This ecoregion has high bio ...

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

{{refbegin * {{cite journal, last1=Saporetti-Junior, first1=Amilcar Walter, last2=Schaefer, first2=Carlos Ernesto G. Reynaud, last3=de Souza, first3=Agostinho Lopes, last4=Soares, first4=Michellia Pereira, last5=Araújo, first5=Dorothy Sue Dunn, last6=Meira-Neto, first6=João Augusto Alves, title=Influence of Soil Physical Properties on Plants of the Mussununga Ecosystem, Brazil, journal=Folia Geobotanica, date=21 September 2011, volume=47, issue=1, pages=29–39, doi=10.1007/s12224-011-9106-9, s2cid=17406247 , ref={{harvid, Saporetti-Junior et al, 2011 {{refend

External links

{{Commons category
official Atlantic Forest Foundation website
— preservation of the Atlantic Forest organization.

— ''with photos''.
UNESCO World Heritage Site: Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves

ATLANTIC forest boundaries in shapefile
{{World Heritage Sites in Brazil {{Authority control {{coord, 16, 30, S, 39, 15, W, source:kolossus-huwiki, display=title 01 Ecoregions of Brazil Ecoregions of Argentina Forests of Brazil Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Neotropical ecoregions Natural regions of South America Geography of Uruguay Regions of Brazil Regions of South America World Heritage Sites in Brazil