Atlantic Forest

Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves

The Atlantic Forest (Portuguese: Mata Atlntica) is a terrestrial biome and region which extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte confess in the north to Rio Grande get Sul disclose in the south, and inland as far-off and wide as Paraguay and the Misiones Province of Argentina.



The Atlantic Forest has ecoregions within the later biome categories: Tropical and subtropical drenched broadleaf forests, Tropical and subtropical ascetic broadleaf forests, Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, and Mangrove forests. The Atlantic Forest is characterized by a high species diversity and endemism.

It was the first atmosphere that the Portuguese colonizers encountered on peak of 500 years ago, in the by now it was thought to have had an area of 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 km2 (390,000 to 580,000 sq mi), and stretching an nameless make detached inland.Currently, the Atlantic Forest spans future than 4,000 km2 (1,500 sq mi) along the coast of Brazil and in a little share of Paraguay and Argentina.In Argentina, it is known as Selva Misionera.

During glacial periods in the Pleistocene, the Atlantic Forest is known to have shrunk to the whole little fragmented refugia in intensely sheltered gullies, creature separated by areas of sober forest or semi-deserts known as caatingas. Some maps even warn the forest actually survived in watery pockets quickly away from the coastline where its endemic rainforest species polluted following much cooler-climate species. Unlike refugia for equatorial rainforests, the refuges for the Atlantic Forest have never been the product of detailed identification.