Várzea (landscape)
As Várzea is lowland forest - ecosystem on the banks of the rivers of the Amazon and Solimões referred to by the seasonally fluctuating water levels of sediment-rich white water rivers are flooded periodically. The Várzeas extend between 50 km on the central Amazon and 200 km inland in the estuary. In total, they extend in Brazil to an area of 250,000 km², which corresponds to about 5% of the Brazilian Amazon region.
In contrast to the Várzeas, the Igapó forest describes a flooded landscape of black water , while the Terra Firme forest stands on higher terrain outside the floodplain.
Due to the regular flooding and the sediments deposited , the Várzea soils are characterized by a high nutrient content. The natural vegetation of the Várzeas is floodplain forests and macrophyte vegetation on the lakes. A total of 3615 tree species can exist in the Várzea and Igapó. The nutrient-rich river lake landscapes created during floods represent a unique refuge for fish and water birds.
The approximately 1.1 million inhabitants of the Várzea (Portuguese ribeirinhos , i.e. “river people” or “river bankers”) live mostly from fishing, logging and small-scale agriculture. The increasing breeding of cattle and water buffalo in the Várzea areas is disrupting these ecosystems .
Seen from the air, these Várzea look like dark commas in the jungle.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruno Garcia Luize, José Leonardo Lima Magalhães, Helder Queiroz, Maria Aparecida Lopes, Eduardo Martins Venticinque, Evlyn Márcia Leão de Moraes Novo, Thiago Sanna Freire Silva. The tree species pool of Amazonian wetland forests: Which species can assemble in periodically waterlogged habitats? PLOS ONE, 2018; 13 (5): e0198130 DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0198130
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