Ilha Ubinha, Brazil Photograph by WWF/ Anthony Anderson   Northern Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon River Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   34,200 square miles (88,700 square kilometers) -- about the size of Indiana Vulnerable

· Fishy Forests
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Fishy Forests

Imagine a forest where fish swim though the lower canopy, munching on tree fruits. Sound like science fiction? Well, it’s fact in the Marajó Várzea Forest ecoregion. Located at the mouth of the Amazon River, the forests here are regularly flooded with river water, allowing fish to swim among tree branches. The constant tidal flooding has created a patchwork of islands in the river, giving this ecoregion its local name, "region of the islands." Here one can find both terrestrial and aquatic species sharing the same area and resources.

Special Features

The Marajó Várzea Forest lies at the delta of the Amazon River and is made up of swamps, which are permanently wet, and floodplain forests, which are periodically wet. Palm trees predominate on higher ground, while the riverbanks are covered with dense thickets of shrubs and vines.

	Capybaras are sometimes called water hogs. They are equally at home in the rivers and the forest. They spend their days eating and resting along riverbanks in South America.

Wild Side

At low tide, various water’s-edge birds patrol the banks and shallows for exposed food. These birds include the colorful American flamingo, wood stork, roseate spoonbill, white-necked heron, horned screamer, scarlet ibis, and purple gallinule. At high tide, large fish such as pacu and tambaqui enter the forest, eating the fruits of the floodplain trees and dispersing their seeds. In the treetops, small red-handed tamarins and marmosets forage for insects and fruits, while capybaras--the world’s largest rodents--swim as a group through the water below. In a stand of buriti palms, gray and red brocket deer can be found chomping on large, fleshy palm fruits. Next to the large, white, spider-like flowers of a pachira tree, a chalk-browed mockingbird and tropical peewee watch for passing insects. And in a large kapok tree in the interior forest, a plain-bellied emerald hummingbird darts from flower to flower in a curtain of hanging lianas.

Cause for Concern

Both the natural habitat and biodiversity of the Marajó Várzea have suffered severe degradation from large-scale agriculture, forestry, and ranching operations. Because this area occupies the mouth of the Amazon’s "superhighway," it has been affected by human activities for hundreds of years. Other concerns include human colonization, hunting pressures, the collection of palm fruits, logging, and subsistence agriculture.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.