In the developed countries of climate mediterrânico, as part of France, Spain, Greece, Italy and United States (California) they are frequent the forest fires in the summer periods. The same happens in areas subpolares, as in the tundra areas and of vegetation of conifers of Alaska and of Russia. In tropical countries, the burned ones happen in the winter, during the dry period. In Brazil, this is a phenomenon generalized in the agriculture.
The burned ones are associated to the more primitive production systems, as the one of hunt and it collects of the natives. But they are also present in the most intensive and modern agriculture, as the one of the sugar-cane, cotton and cereals. The lack of information on the nature and the occurrence of this practice is big, provoking confusion among the burned ones tropical and the forest fires.
More than 98% of the burned ones practiced in healthy Brazil of agricultural nature. The farmer decides when and where to burn. It is a controlled practice, wanted and it is part of the production system. The tillers burn crop residues, savanna areas, native and planted pastagens and straw of the sugar-cane to facilitate the crop. The forest fires are already of accidental nature, indesejados and difficult to control. They only happen in favorable vegetations to that phenomenon type, as the degraded forests, entremeadas for bushes and gramíneas, the forests of pine tree araucaria and the Forest Atlantic plateau caducifólia, found in the areas South and Southeast of the Country.
In the Atlantic forest and in the humid tropical forest, a fire in primary vegetation is very difficult of to happen and to spread. The same happens with the vegetation of Caatinga. In the dry period, the loss of the leaves reduces the material comburente and the combustibilidade of the woody part it is small. The plants continue green and with great amounts of water in its fabrics. For the same reason, forest fires in almost impossible healthy Amazônia of happening.
Researches accomplished by the Nucleus of Environmental Monitoramento NMA-Embrapa, in Rondônia, indicate to be necessary, on the average, serial burned eight years so that the fire consummates the whole woody material originating from of the desmatamento in small rural properties. For those reasons, the monitoramento orbital of the burned ones accomplished in Brazil since 1991, with base in images of the satellite NOAA/AVHRR, indicates that only 30% of the burned ones registered at the Country happen in Amazônia.
The difference of level of the waters among the drought stations and of full it is on the average of just four meters, but, due to the little declividade, most of the Swampland can be flooded. The years of big full, the waters surpass the level of the six meters. On these occasions, the waters of rivers as Paraguay, Cuiabá, São Lourenço, Taquari and Miranda, as well as its countless ones flowing, they leave its beds and they flood enormous areas. These form a dense net of ponds, bays and flooded slopes, interlinked for courses of perennial waters - the corixos - or ephemeral. Only the lands high, called mountain ranges, besides little islands and higher places, escape to the flood. Some isolated hills of rock pré-cambriana, the " inselbergs ", is stood out among the swamps. One of these it is the Hill of the Oil, to Rio Miranda's margins. When the waters return to the normal, several bays and ponds stay, while another evaporate. A rich vegetation of herbs is spread by the slopes, taking advantage of the layer of nutritious mud left by the flood. They also exist small bays of salted water. In each precipitation-evaporation cycle, the mineral salts accumulate, resulting in certain salinização of the soils and of some bays. The gradativa evaporation of the waters in the ponds is marked by white rings of deposits of soda salt (carbonate of sodium). The concentration of salts in these bays, in places as the area of Nhecolândia, gets to be close to that of the marine concentrations.
The Swampland of Mato Grosso, with an extension of 250 thousand km2, is the largest area alagável of the world. The Swampland is an immense basin intercontinental, defined by the Brazilian Plateau, to the east, by Plated Matogrossenses, to the north, and also for a chain of hills and high lands of the Andean sopé, to west. Therefore, he can be considered a great internal delta, where they accumulate the waters of high Paraguay and the one of great number of rivers that get off the Plateau. Through the river Paraguay, the Swampland is intimately linked to the great basin of the river Paraná - I laugh at the Silver. Diffuse aquatic connections with flowing amazon they exist to the north, especially with the river Guaporé. The drainage of this internal delta for medium Paraguay, by means of the narrow and shallow bar of the I Close of the Hills of the South, it is made her with a lot of difficulty. Even so, enormous amounts of water estagnada behind this barragem turn the Swampland an unexpected labyrinth of stopped and average, temporary or permanent waters, designated through great amount of specific terms by the man pantaneiro. In the indigenous legends and in the first maps, the Swampland is reminded as a great lake full of islands, the " sea of Xaraiés ".
In rainy years, as in 1984 or in 1995, the river Paraguay expands in a strip of up to 20 km of width, invading the great lakes of the Bolivian border and the Island of Caracará, regenerating the " sea of Xaraiés " of the old rainy climates temporarily. The river Paraguay and the other rivers pantaneiros present little declividade, of the order of 20-30 cm for kilometer, what does with that the waters that accumulate in the periods of rains intense escoem with a lot of slowness. In consequence, the enchentes, that you/they are maximum to the north the months of March and April, only arrives at the south of the Swampland in July and August. Meanwhile, immense amounts of water, probably hundreds of cubic kilometers a year, they get lost for direct evaporation for the atmosphere. The Swampland can be, with justice, considered the largest " window " of evaporation of fresh water of the world.

A lifetime and the economy of the Swampland is tied up to this system of floods. The area is an interesting aquatic paradox in an area of arid semi-arid or same continental climate. Without the abundant and shallow sheet freático and the alluviums left by the enchentes, the terrestrial vegetation would be similar to the one of the closed or with the one of Bolivian Chaco. Equally, the rich fauna of birds and mammals depend, in its great majority, of the aquatic feeding. The Swampland can be seen, then, as a great and dynamic interface between the aquatic world and the terrestrial.
The aquatic vegetation is fundamental for the life pantaneira. The flotation plants are the main primary producers in the waters of the Swampland. Immense areas are covered by " batume ", that they are flotation plants, such as the aguapé (Eichhornia) and Salvinia, among another. Taken by the rivers, these plants constitute true flotation islands, the camalotes.

After the floods, the layer of nutritious mud allows the development of a rich vegetation of herbs. The palm tree carandá (Copernicia australis) it happens in extensive formations in the areas in that the floods dominate but that are dry during the winter, permeating with the cupinzeiros, where the paratudal begins. The paratudais, formed by the ipês roxos (Tabebuia, locally called piúva), they are typical.
In an area a little higher, already with areas you didn't flood, there is a characteristic vegetation of closed. There are still in the Swampland areas with dense and gloomy forest (with Piptadenia, Bombax, Magonia, Guazuma). Around the elevated margins of the rivers he/she appears the palm tree acuri (Attalea princes), forming a forest of galleries together with other trees, as the stick-of-beginner (Triplaris formicosa), the embaúba (Cecropia), the genipapo (Genipa) and the figs (Ficus). In high points of the hills he/she appears a vegetation similar to the one of the caatinga, with the bromeliácea Dyckia and the cacti cansanção and mandacaru (Cereus).
The last geológico allowed to the Swampland to constitute in the largest entroncamento of the exchanges of the flora and of the aquatic fauna of South America. Now it is populated by a variety of amazon and southern organisms. Being mainly a runner of exchanges, it doesn't shelter rich endemic fauna, like Amazônia, and they are the amounts and not the rarities that characterize it. The Swampland offers to the visitor a variety of open landscapes populated by great populations of animals, whose feeding depends on the aquatic phase. Thus, in the ponds, the microflora and the microfauna they allow the development of rich populations of clams aruas (Pomacea, Marisa and other) and of shells (Anodontides, Castalia and other), that they sustain a variety of predadores of these mollusks, as birds and reptiles.

The countless pitu cardumes (Macrobrachium) and the several species of the crab (Trichodactylus, Dilocarcinus and other) they possess indirect economic importance: they serve as baits for the fishermen. Among the abundant fish, there are the corumbatá, the pacú, the barky, the colored, the gilding, the jaú and the piranhas. Among the comedores of the aquatic vegetation they stand out the great capivaras populations (Hydrochaeris, hydrochaeris) and of buffalos. The cágado (Platemys) he/she is also vegetarian. The ariranha (Pteronura brasiliensis), important predador piscívoro, formerly abundant, it was almost exterminated by the hunters. I destine fellow creature he/she can have the alligator (Caiman crocodilus yacare), decimated by the illegal hunt of the last years.

The alligators have important paper in the waters pantaneiras, where they work as predadores " regulators " of the fauna piscícola and, sometimes, as important agents of the ciclagem of nutritious. Where has many alligators they are found little piranhas. When the alligators are decimated by the indiscriminate hunt of the " coureiros ", the population of aggressive piranhas increases in detriment of another species of fish, could get to be even dangerous for the human beings.
Other important aquatic and semi-terrestrial predador is the sucuri (Eunectes notaeus), it collects wrongly pursued by the pantaneiros. The snakes are scarce in the Swampland, mainly in the areas you flooded. But there are snakes of water (Liophis, Helicops), jararacas (Bothrops neuwiedii) and boipevaçu (Hydrodynaste gigas).
The birds of the Swampland are one of its largest attractiveness. Gathered in enormous concentrations, they explore the aquatic alimentary resources. The tuiuiú (Jabiru mycteria), the head-drought (American Mycteria) and the colhereiro (Ajaia ajaja), besides the herons biguás and ducks are the most good-looking. A lot of species nidificam in common areas, on certain trees, known as ninhais, that stand out in the landscape pantaneira. An admirable show is to accompany the birds, to the evening or the dawn, to the bedrooms to the beira of the rivers, where they pass the nights.

Typical of the Swampland Ave are also the aracuã-do-swampland (Ortalis canicollis), to macaw-blue (Anodorhyncus hyacinthinus), that the extinction risk, the parakeet of black head runs (Nandayus nenday). The small cardinal (Paroaria capitata) it is characteristic bird of this ecosystem. The enormous abundance of prey birds, especially the caracará (Polyborus), they reflect the wealth of the animal prey. The hawk caramujeiro (Rosthramus sociabilis) he/she feeds of mollusks.

Typical animals of the closed also concentrate on great number in the Swampland, atraídos for the abundance of victuals of the flooded areas. They are these species that appear esparsas in another areas of the continent. The deer-do-swampland (Blastocerus dichotomus), common in the rich humid pastagens, it can be seen accompanied for more two species of deer of the closed and for other mammals, as the dog-vinegar (Speothus vinaticus), the tapir (Tapirus terrestris), the caitetu (Tayassu tajacu) and the paca (Agouti paca). They meet there, still, the wolf-guará (Chrysocyon brachyurus) and him tamanduá-flag (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), hunted intensely.

Among the primates, the monkey-nail (Cebus apella) he/she lives there, beside the bugio (Alouatta caraya). Filthy monteiros, descending of domesticated suínos, they also proliferate amid the vegetation dense pantaneira. As well as the ounce (Panthera ounce), several other felines are atraídos for the abundance of preys. The top predador in the beira of the waters is the ounce-colored, close to other felídeos and canídeos. Among the birds, the ema (American Rhea) and the seriema (Cariama cristata) they are typical inhabitants of the closed. Naturally, the rich fauna offers many opportunities for the prey birds and for the comedores of carcasses.

The landscapes open of the Swampland facilitate the aerial recenseamento of the populations of great vertebrates. He/she is considered, for example, that they exist 10 million alligators today, 600 thousand capivaras, but only 35 thousand deer-do-swampland.
The dimension of the burned in the tropical area it has been provoking concern and polemic in national and international ambit. They are in general associated to the desmatamento and forest fires, and, in the case of Brazil, where they happen more than 200 thousand a year, the researches indicate that the burned ones are, most of the time, a widespread agricultural practice. Approximately 30% of them happen in Amazônia, mainly in the south and southeast of the area.

Brazil is one of the only countries of the world to dispose of a system absolutely operational orbital of burned monitoramento. Dozens of location maps are generated a week, during the winter, and, in this work, quantitative data of the monitoramento orbital of the burned ones happened in Amazônia are presented. The monitoramento is fruit of a collaboration scientific multiinstitucional, involving the National Institute of Space Researches (INPE), the Nucleus of Environmental Monitoramento - NMA/EMBRAPA, Ecoforça - he/she Researches and Development and the Agência Estado (AE). The results are being obtained thanks to the daily study of images of the North American satellites of the series NOAA, of responsibility of U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The environmental impact of the burned ones worries the scientific community, ambientalistas and the society in general, because they affect the physics, the chemistry and the biology of the soils directly, altering, still, the quality of the air in unimaginable proportions. They also interfere in the vegetation, in the biodiversidade and in the human health. Indirectly, the burned ones can commit until the quality of the resources surface hídricos. Several recent scientific researches are helping to understand to real dimension of this impact, in particular in the case of Amazônia


The environmental impact of the burned ones is a preoccupying theme, because it involves the fertility of the soils, the destruction of the biodiversidade, the agroecossistemas fragilização, the destruction of transmission lines and other forms of public and private patrimony, the production of noxious gases to the human health, the decrease of the atmospheric visibility, the increase of accidents in highways and the limitation of the aerial traffic, among others.
The burned ones interfere directly in the quality of the air, in the physics, in the chemistry and in the biology of the soils, in the vegetation reached by the fire and indirectly they can affect the resources hídricos. They are many the burned types, involving different vegetations. A fertilized pastagem can generate certain gases, in particular oxides nítricos, in amount very superior the one of a pastagem that didn't receive fertilizers. The meteorological conditions (wind presence, temperature sets), the relief and the hour of the burned are condicionantes of the temperature reached by the fire and of the necessary time for it burns it total of the available vegetable material.
In function of the temperature and of the time, the generated gases can have a very different nature (oxidized). The same happens concerning the biology of the soil. In function of the hour of the burned (in the daytime or at night, at noon or at dusk...), the reactions fotoquímicas at the level of the gaseous emissions will be differentiated.
It is not possible to generalize on the environmental impacts of the burned ones, nor in Amazônia, nor in Brazil. But the fact of most of the burned ones practiced in Brazil to be of agricultural nature, indicates a small contribution of its emissions of carbon in the problem of the effect stove. Most of the carbon emitted for the burned in the winter it is removed of the atmosphere in the summer, when the vegetation is in growth phase.
Given the complexity of the theme and the dominant agricultural character of the burned ones can wonder which the cost-benefit of that technology of the era neolítica used thoroughly by the Brazilian agriculture. In that aspect the national contrasts are enormous. An example is enough to illustrate that situation. São Paulo and Paraná answer for almost 50% of the national agricultural production and they contribute on the average with 2% of the burned ones. Mato Grosso, alone, already contributes with almost 20% of those burned of the Country (the double of the total of the areas South and Southeast committees) for a very limited agricultural production.
The difficult access protected the Swampland of the human impact even recently, and only in the last decades this began to be explored by hunters of ariranha skins and of alligator. Nowadays, the illegal hunt and the smuggling of alligator skins are, in a general way, under control, and the farms of creation of alligators are multiplying. The disordered hunt of the deer, of the capivaras and of the baguás, animals considered transmitters of diseases, of the birds piscívoras and granívoras, of the snakes and of the ounces, it constitutes direct danger for the regional biological diversity.

The commercial fishing of the Swampland became a serious environmental problem, with the arrival of the ships and of the refrigerating trucks. Until the sporting fishing, more and more intense, he/she needs severe fiscalization. This is mainly the case in the months of the piracema, when the females go up the rivers until the heads, becoming easy preys. Individual quotas exist for amateur fisherman, even so the number of fishermen tourists increases with the growing access easiness to the Swampland.
Closed it is the regional name given to the Brazilian savannas. About 85% of the great platô that it occupies Central Brazil it was originally dominated by the landscape of the closed, representing about 1,5 to 2 million of km2, or approximately 20% of the surface of the Country. The typical climate of the area of the closed ones is hot, semi-humid and notedly seasonal, with rainy summer and I hibernate dry. The annual pluviosidade is around 800 to 1600 mm. The soils are generally very old, chemically poor and deep.
The landscape of the closed is characterized by extensive formations savânicas, intercepted by ciliary forests along the rivers, in the funds of it is worth. However, other vegetation types can appear in the area of the closed ones, such as the humid fields or the buritis sidewalks, where the sheet freático is superficial; the fields rupestres can happen in the largest altitudes and the forests mesófilas they locate on the most fertile soils. Even the forms exclusive savânicas are not homogeneous, having a great variation in the swinging among the amount of trees and of herbaceous, forming a structural gradient that is going of the closed completely open - the clean field, vegetation dominated by gramíneas, without the presence of the woody elements (trees and bushes) - to the closed shut, forest fisionomicamente - the cerradão, with great amount of trees and forest aspect. The intermediary forms are the dirty field, the closed field and the closed stricto sensu, in agreement with a growing density of trees.
The very peculiar healthy trees of the closed, with crooked logs, covered by a thick cork, whose leaves are generally big and rigid. Many herbaceous plants have underground organs to store water and nutritious. Thick cork and you structure underground they can be interpreted as some of the a lot of adaptations of this vegetation to the burned ones periodic the one that is submitted, protecting the plants of the destruction and qualifying them for rebrotar after the fire. It is believed that, as in many savannas of the world, the ecosystems of closed come co-existing with the fire since remote times, initially as natural fires caused by lightnings or volcanic activity and, later on, caused by the man. Removing profit of the rebrota of the herbaceous stratum that is proceeded after a burned in closed, the primitive inhabitants of these areas learned serving of the fire as a tool to increase the forage offer to its animals (herbivores) domesticated, what happens even today.
The great variability of habitats in the several types of closed supports an enormous diversity of species of plants and you encourage. Recent studies, as presented him for J.A.Ratter and other authors in " Progresses in the Study of Biodiversidade of the Woody Flora of Closed " Bioma, in 1995, they esteem the number of vascular plants around 5 thousand; and that more than 1.600 species of mammals, birds and reptiles were already identified in the ecosystems of closed (Fauna of the Closed, Costa et al., 1981). Among the diversity of spineless, the more notables are they termites (cupins) and the ants cortadeiras (saúvas). They are them the main herbivores of the closed, tends a great importance in the consumption and in the decomposição of the organic matter, as well as they constitute an important alimentary source for many other animal species. On the other hand, the urban pressure and the fast establishment of agricultural activities in the area come reducing the biodiversidade of these ecosystems quickly. Even middles of 1960, the agricultural activities in the closed ones were quite limited, addressed mainly to the extensive production of court cattle for subsistence or for the local market, once the soils of closed are naturally inférteis for the agricultural production. After that period, even so, the urban and industrial growth of the Southeast area forced the agriculture to the Center-west. The change of the capital of the Country for Brasília was other focus of population attraction for the central area. Of 1975 to the beginning of the eighties, many government programs were thrown with the purpose of stimulating the development of the area of the closed, through subsidies for the establishment of farms and technological improvements for the agriculture, tends, as result, a significant increase in the agricultural production.
Now, the area of the closed contributes with more than 70% of the production of bovine meat of the Country (court Pecuária in Central Brazil, Corrêa, 1989) and, thanks to the irrigation and techniques of correction of the soil, it is also an important center of production of grains, mainly soy, bean, corn and rice. Great extensions of closed are still used in the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, through the cultivation of several species of Eucalyptus and Pinus, but still as a secondary activity.
The conservation of the natural resources of the closed ones is represented by several categories of units of conservation, in agreement with specific objectives: eight parks national, several state parks and ecological stations, understanding about 6,5% of the total area of closed (Closed: characterization, occupation and perspectives, Dias, 1990). However, this extension is insufficient and more units of conservation they still need to be created to protect the biodiversidade that still preserves.

From middles of the seventies, he/she intensified at the Swampland the agricultural economy. Today, with about 4 million cattle heads, the area became important producing of meat. In a general way, the culture of the cattle is not considered harmful to the atmosphere. The imprevisibilidade of the great enchentes, however, it limits the size of the flocks and it maintains them inside of the limits of an economy maintainable ecologicamente. In the absence of another mammals pastadores, besides the few cervídeos, the oxen Nelore is not competitors of the original fauna. They became integral part of the landscape pantaneira The cultures of rice, sugar-cane and soy they harmed the atmosphere pantaneiro. Barragens, channels and embankments that terrestrial drenam for the agriculture, besides the desmatamento of the closed, takes to the assoreamento of rivers, like Taquari, and they interfered in the piracema. Lately, several exotic herbs are dispersed for aerial semeadura, such like African Brachiaria, to increase the revenue of the pasture.
The Swampland is a great reception basin and evaporation of waters and several carefuls should be been to preserve it of the pollution. An example is what happens with the mercury used in the wash of gold by the garimpeiros of the river Poconé: its toxicant salts accumulate in the bays in amounts every larger time; the fish spread the mercury and the rate of this harmful metal to the health, in the fabrics of the fish of the Swampland, it increases to every year. The vinhaço of the usinas of alcohol of Mato Grosso and the pollution in the metropolis of Cuiabá also accumulate in this great sedimentação basin.
One of the great environmental dangers to the whole Swampland is the project of the hidrovia, drifted jointly by Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. To facilitate the access of the marine and fluvial sailing even Cáceres, in High Rio Paraguai, the gutter of the river should be deepened, the intrigues, cut, and the contact between the river and the swamps, restricted by dikes.
To guarantee the health of that ecosystem it is fundamental to maintain and to enlarge its preserved areas. They exist, now, a small Ecological Station, the one of the island of Taiamã, and the National Park of the Swampland. The fiscalization of these immense areas is difficult, mainly for the lack of financial resources and of appropriate personnel.

A promising and compatible activity with the survival of that only atmosphere is it called ecological tourism. The highway Transpantaneira, partially completes, as well as the highway Miranda-Corumbá, they facilitate the access of thousands of tourists and they facilitate the enjoyment of the wealth faunística and paisagística of the Swampland. The tourist industry is a middle of waking up the interest of the pantaneiros for the survival of the fauna and flora of its area. The growing number of tourist farms and of inns it constitutes good integration example between the tourism and the environmental preservation of the ecosystem.
The flooded lands, in the whole world, they are always rich in fauna. In the special case of the Swampland, the neighborhood with Amazônia and the characteristics of the physical middle turn it one of the areas of larger tourist and ecological value of Brazil. Activities as cattle creation, capivaras or alligators are compatible with the preservation of the area. On the other hand, the garimpeiros action and individual initiatives that they alter the ecology of the landscape, by means of the drainage of swamps and extensive embankments, among other, they disable the maintenance of the fauna and of the abundant flora and of the tourist potential. Considered one of the terrestrial paradises, is of fundamental importance the maintenance and amplification of its preserved areas.
Brazil, occupying a territory of 8,5 million of km2 and placed in tropical area, it is constituted by several atmospheres, products of the history geológica and of the recent human influence. Those atmospheres correspond in beginning to the counties fitogeográficas described in the beginning of the century XIX for Carl F. P. von Martius, botanical that also began the monumental Flora Brasiliensis. The patterns suffered alterations for the human action, but they are accepted even today, when modern techniques of remote sensoriamento monitor the a little physical Brazilian.
The several botanical areas of Brazil were called by the name attributed to them by the natives, for the Portuguese and for the first naturalists. The Amazon Forest - the naturalist's German von Hiléia Humboldt, embraces the states of Pará, Amazonas, Amapá, Acre, Rondônia and Roraima and it is also present in neighboring countries: Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. In Brazil, it occupies 3,5 million of km2 approximately.

The amazon basin is formed by countless rivers of great size, carrying loamy waters, black waters or clear waters. Known as shelter of the largest biodiversidade of the world, the Amazon Forest is formed basically by forests of firm earth, that they meet out of the direct influence of the rivers, without suffering floods; várzea forests, flooded by the rivers of loamy water in the station of the full ones; and igapós forests, flooded almost permanently by rivers of black water. Stains of closed exist among the forests, as well as clareiras of poor vegetation and campinas or campinaras on the stains of sands.
Thousands of species of endemic fish are tied up to the amazon fluvial net and they act in the reproduction of the plants that margeiam the rivers. The amazon endemismo is globally known and it is especially rich in primates, birds, bees, butterflies, fish and other animals. They stand out, among other, the sagüi-leãozinho, the smallest primate of the world, the real laziness, the black cotia, the pacarana, the fish-ox, I throw it rose color, the true uirapuru and the rooster of the mountain.
About 40% of the Brazilian territory it is formed by Amazônia. The process of colonization of this vast area needs an adapted politics of maintainable handling, besides to avoid one of its big ones and problems, that it is it of the burned ones act. Now monitored everyday and under constant surveillance, these are constituted in one of the current problems of the process of colonization of the south part of Amazônia and of the need of the establishment of a politics of the use of the soil.
To proceed we have the closed ones, savanna vegetation, that already occupied 25% of the Brazilian territory, in the Center-west of the Country and in the states of Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso of the South and it leaves of the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Maranhão and Piauí. The closed appears in places with soils deep, little estratificados, leached and poor in organic residues, generally of the type latossolo. A dry station of three to seven months brings marks to the area, provoking the disappearance of the herbaceous vegetation, the fall of leaves of the bushes of tortuous logs and thick peels. One of the trees of the closed, the ipê (Tabebuia ochracea), the tree symbol of Brazil was declared.

The rivers of closed don't generally evaporate, maintaining to its circuit a ciliary forest. The underground sheet passes to 15-20 depth meters or to more. Now, the closed has been used for the soy agriculture, with plenty of success, after improvements in its chemical conditions. Being an open area, he/she has a typical fauna of herbivore mammals, ground birds and many reptiles. The handling of the closed includes the use of the fire, and the vegetation is adapted to its passage. In a closed preserved good the trees reach height of 8 to 10 meters. About 2 million of km2 of the Brazilian territory they are busy for closed. Due to the underground system of its plants, he is recomposed quickly after the frequent ones burned.
Imbeded between the closed and the Bolivian chaco it is the Swampland, formed by enchentes of the rivers of the basin of the river Paraguay. It is one of the tourist potential adult's from Brazil areas and of the largest area alagável of the world. It occupies a great extension, with about 150 thousand km2, in most in the State of Mato Grosso of the South. They are the rich populations of fish, of birds and of mammals that characterize the Swampland: the tuiuiús, the emas, the capivaras, the ariranhas, the ounces etc. Among the reptiles they stand out the alligators and the sucuris.
The caatinga or the Brazilian interior is a semi-arid area, very drought, understanding part of the states of Bahia, Alagoas, Sergipe, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Big Rio of the North, Ceará, Piauí and Maranhão. It occupies about 700 thousand km2. The annual regime of rains in the caatinga is unexpected. Therefore it is an area very adapted to the life in conditions of low humidity, with a vegetation typical xerofítica. The caatinga suffered great devastation in the past, owed besides to the firewood use as fuel and to the replantio absence. The soils are frequently shallow and very stony.
The atmosphere of larger biodiversidade in Brazil and that meets under the largest menace it is the Atlantic forest. Occupying today about 5% of the original area, esteemed in 1,5 million of km2, it accompanies the Brazilian coast closely, of Big Rio of the North to the beginning of Big Rio of the South. It went the first atmosphere to be used by the Portuguese settlers. The name of the country, Brazil, comes from a tree, the stick brasil (Cesalpinia echinata), explored by the natives and for the settlers for extraction of a red pigment.
This forest can still be it releases in certain spaces, in the states of Paraná and of Santa Catarina. In another places it occupies mainly the narrow strip of the Atlantic scarp, formed of crystalline rocks. The Atlantic forest is a forest pluvial montana, occupying mainly mountains with altitudes of 800 to 1700 meters. It suffers the influence of the marine winds, the trade winds, that to the they go up the encosta of the mountain they catch a cold, condensing and provoking the fog of the Mountain of the Sea. It rains then about 2000mm a year in this mountain; in some areas, as in Boracéia (State of São Paulo), up to 4000mm a year. The humidity of these areas will depend on the distance between them and the sea. In some the night cold is considerable. In the Atlantic forest, the medium temperatures vary of 14° C to 21° C; the minimum absolute, in the South of the Country, it can arrive to -6° C. Higher temperatures arrive to 35° C.

The great humidity facilitates a rich flora of mosses and samambaias, besides countless epífitas, such as orchids and bromélias. Some trees, as the pink jequitibá, arrive to 40 height meters. Palm trees are common, standing out among them the palmito. The highest areas present the altitude fields. Between 300 and 800 altitude meters there is another forest type, with lower trees, up to 25 meters.
The rich endemic fauna is characterized mainly by multicolored butterflies, for toads and pererecas, a lot of species of birds and wild mammals. The muriqui (Brachyteles arachnoides), an endemic gender of primates, is the largest monkey of the continent. There are species of important native bees for the pollination of the dossel, as the gurupu (bicolor Melipona).
While the several lavouras types and the coal industry cause the destruction of the Atlantic forest, the cultures of the cocoa take advantage of the vegetable covering. Now in serious economic crisis and fitossanitária, this lavoura is being white of programs conservacionistas that seek to decrease the destruction of the forests for the sale of wood, promoted by the farmers in financial difficulties. A Reservation of the Biosphere of Unesco, recently-established, embraces areas of high degree of preservation of the Atlantic forest.
The forest of araucarias, subtropical forest of the South of the Country, already occupied about 15% of the Brazilian territory. Today it is very desolated, for meeting in area of great agricultural and industrial development. The pine tree Araucaria, the species caraterística, suffered a lot with the courts for the industry madeireira. They still happen samples of the forest with Araucaria in the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Big Rio of the South. A lot of species of this forest, such as the samambaia xaxim, the blue crow or the jacutinga, they arrived today to the beira of the extinction. The pine trees also happen in mosaic with the semi-deciduous Atlantic vegetation, in the transition areas.
In the Brazilian interior, and typically in rocks, a lot of caves exist, rich in formations geológicas and that shelter an interesting fauna of fish and blind crustaceans.
Other important atmosphere is the growth of mangroves, entremarés forest formed by little species of trees, but that has a fundamental paper as source of victuals for the marine fauna. Brazil is especially rich in growth of mangroves, already monitored by satellites. Beside these, in the soils of sandy alluviums, there is frequently a sandbank vegetation, it kills of low load and arbustiva that it occupies sandy lands.
Occupying less expressive territorial areas but important ecologicamente, has the fields rupestres, the coca plantations of the North, the fields of Big Rio of the South, the sandy and rocky beaches, among other atmospheres that characterize and they enrich Brazil. The arrecifes of Caltrops, small area of arrecifes of chorales, has the largest rate of endemic species of chorales and of associated marine fauna.

The fauna of the aquatic birds and paludículas (that live in ponds) of the Swampland it is among the richest of the world, with many species of ducks and marrecos filtradores of small animals and of algae, among which the irerê is the most common and abundant in the area.
Some of the ducks belong to the typical fauna of the system Paraná-silver. The tachã, or the " sentry of the Swampland ", peculiar animal of South America and distant relative of the anatídeos, easily it can be seen in the gramíneas fields or empoleirados in the cups of the trees, where it stays during hours. Several species of herons and socós form great colonies in the trees of the ciliary forest. The largest species of our herons is the maguari. Although he/she has solitary habit, it is common to find groups of heron-white-big with the heron-white-small. Each one is specialized in the hunt of several arrested, as fish, amphibians and small reptiles, in different zones of the ponds, during the day or in the twilight. Ajaia ajaja, the pretty pink colhereiro, is a specialized filtrador.
The stork, head-dries it and the tuiuiú feeds of insects, crabs, clams, frogs and fish, that pick up in the shallow waters and in muds. The tuiuiú is one of the symbols of the Swampland. Its nests isolated in trees stand out in the landscape pantaneira.
That varied group of aquatic birds has hunt strategies and several diets. The biguá, for example, hunts fish swiming and diving; the biguatinga, with its neck serpentiforme, uses the sharp beak for " espetar " the fish. Already the hawk-caramujeiro he/she is a " specialist " in the hunt of clams, being dependent of the existence of the gastropods, mainly of the aruá.