The Tapajós–Xingu moist forests lie between the Tapajós river to the west and the Xingu rivers to the east, tributaries of the Amazon River to the north. They have an area of 336,698.45 square kilometres (130,000.00 sq mi).
The rivers act as barriers to the movement of plants, animals and insects to and from adjacent regions.
In the south the rugged Serra do Cachimbo divides the ecoregion from other moist forest areas.[1]
There are urban centers at Santarém at the mouth of the Tapajós, Aveiro on the lower Tapajós and Altamira on the Iriri River.
The ecoregion is crossed the BR-009 and BR-600 highways and by the Rio Novo and Amazônia National Parks.[2]
Elevations range from 5 metres (16 ft) above sea level along the Amazon to 198 metres (650 ft) in the south.[1]
The ecoregion mostly lies on the undulating terrain of the ancient Brazilian Shield.
Soils are often rich in nutrients, but poor soils are found in the higher areas.
The main rivers are blackwater, with little or no suspended sediment.
The largest is the Iriri, a tributary of the Xingu.
Others are the Jamanxim, Curuá, Crepori, Curuá Una, and Jaraucu.[2]
Climate
The Köppen climate classification is "Am": equatorial, monsoonal.
Temperatures are fairly uniform throughout the year, slightly cooler in July and slightly warmer in April.
They range from 21.5 °C (70.7 °F) to 32.5 °C (90.5 °F), with a mean of just under 27 °C (81 °F).[4]
Annual rainfall is 1,524 to 2,032 millimetres (60.0 to 80.0 in).[1]
Monthly rainfall ranges from 37.7 millimetres (1.48 in) in July to 313.9 millimetres (12.36 in) in February, with rain falling on about 240 days of each year.[4]
The regions with rich soil have diverse flora and fauna with many endemic species.
Mostly the forests are evergreen tropical rainforest on terra firme, not subject to flooding.
There is lowland forest along the Amazon River.
Further south the forest is submontane, open canopy forest with patches of dense forest.
Where the blackwater rivers flood they create igapó forests.
An unusual form of forest with many large lianas at all levels is found on the higher land in the south and southeast of the ecoregion.
Typically these forests are found on richer soils, and have a canopy under 25 metres (82 ft), lower than the canopy of the humid terra firme forest.[2]
The World Wildlife Fund classes the ecoregion as "Vulnerable".[2]
The Tapajós–Xingu, Xingu–Tocantins–Araguaia, and Tocantins–Araguaia–Maranhão moist forest ecoregions on the eastern edge of the Amazon basin have all been badly affected by human settlement and deforestation.[6]
Roads have opened the region to rapid and uncontrolled growth of colonies, logging, ranching and major projects that have destroyed large areas of forest and degraded the land.
The remaining forests are threatened by large and uncontrolled man-made fires.
Miners seeking gold and other mineral pollute the rivers with chemicals.[2]
During the period from 2004 to 2011 the ecoregion experienced an annual rate of habitat loss of 0.38%.[7]
Global warming will force tropical species to migrate uphill to find areas with suitable temperature and rainfall.
Low, flat, deforested ecoregions such as the Tapajós–Xingu moist forests are extremely vulnerable.[8]
The Amazônia National Park protects both sides of the Tapajós near Itaituba, with an area of 9,935 square kilometres (3,836 sq mi), but it is underfunded.
The Tapajós National Forest does little to protect the forests near Aveiro.[2]
Coca-Castro, Alejandro; Reymondin, Louis; Bellfield, Helen; Hyman, Glenn (January 2013), Land use Status and Trends in Amazonia(PDF), Amazonia Security Agenda Project, archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-03-19, retrieved 2017-03-24
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