The Northeastern Brazil restingas are an

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

of northeastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

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 ...

s are coastal forests which form along coastal sand dunes in Brazil. The soils are typically sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor, and are characterized by medium-sized

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s and

shrubs A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

adapted to local conditions. Restingas have aspects of mangroves, caatingas, wetlands, and moist forests, often forming along wind-driven sand dunes. The Northeast Brazil restingas are the most northerly of the forest type in Brazil.

Location and Description

The ecoregion extends 400 km along the northeast Atlantic coast of Brazil, and up to 100 km inland. This covers an area of along oasts of eastern

Maranhão Maranhão () is a state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of . Clockwise from north, it borders on the Atlantic Ocean for 2,243 km and the states of Piauí, Tocantins and ...

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...

, and western

Ceará Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...

states. The ecoregion includes the

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (''Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses'') is a national park in Maranhão state in northeastern Brazil, just east of the Baía de São José. Protected on June 2, 1981, the park includes of coastline, ...

, where patches of restinga are interspersed with some of the most extensive coastal dunes in the world. The dune systems reflect the forces of tides that vary 6 meters.

Climate

The climate of the ecoregion is '' Tropical savanna climate - dry summer'' (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

(As)). This climate is characterized by relatively even temperatures throughout the year, and a pronounced dry season. The driest month has less than 60 mm of precipitation, and is drier than the average month.

Flora and fauna

The area is a patchwork of habitat types. 29% of the area has herbaceous cover, including beach morning glory (''

Ipomoea imperati ''Ipomoea imperati'', the beach morning-glory (a name it shares with ''Ipomoea pes-caprae''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Convolvulaceae Convolvulaceae (), commonly called the bindweeds or morning glories, is a family of ...

''), seashore dropseed, and

Iresine ''Iresine'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae. It contains 20 to 25 species, all of which are native to the American tropics. The generic name is derived from the Greek word εριος (''erios''), meaning "wooly", refer ...

as pioneer species on the dunes of the northwest. Sedge and panic grass are found on the floodplains. 20% of the cover is shrub, dominating in the caatingas of the drier eastern portions of the ecoregion. 34% of the cover is forest, split roughly equally between open and closed canopy. The moist forests are found along the inland edge and in the southwest. The flora of the Northeastern Brazil restingas includes many species with affinities to 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 ...

, which distinguishes them from the

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. ...

of Brazil's eastern coast, whose flora is mostly derived from the

Atlantic Forest 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 state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

of eastern Brazil. The

Scarlet ibis The scarlet ibis (''Eudocimus ruber'') is a species of ibis in the bird family Threskiornithidae. It inhabits tropical South America and part of the Caribbean. In form, it resembles most of the other twenty-seven extant species of ibis, but its ...

is a well-known feature of the inter-dune lakes and wetlands of this area. Recent conservation efforts have also focused on protecting the nesting sites of sea turtles.

Protected areas

Over 29% of the ecoregion is located in an officially protected area, including: *

, at the western edge of the ecoregion, at the

Baía de São José The Baía de São José () is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean in the state of Maranhão in northeastern Brazil. The bay is an estuary which receives several rivers, including the Itapecuru and Munim. São Luís Island, also known as Maranhão Islan ...

External links

References

{{Brazil topics, state=collapsed Ecoregions of Brazil Environment of Ceará Environment of Maranhão Environment of Piauí Forests of Brazil Amazon biome Geography of Ceará Geography of Maranhão Geography of Piauí Neotropical tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests