The Species

Species covered

The Land Birds of Southeast Brazil describes over 650 species. Of these species approximately 110 are endemic to the area being covered and another 77 are endemic if a slightly more extended area of southeastern Brazil is covered. At the other end of the spectrum a number of species are included either because they are historically known from the area at a time when its forest cover was much more extensive or because they occur on the periphery of the area and probably also within it although there have been no recent sightings.

The cause of biodiversity in Southeastern Brazil.

The flora and fauna of Southeastern Brazil show a relationship with those of the forests of Amazonia ¹⁹ which themselves exhibit a high degree of diversity. It was once thought that the diversity of the Amazon basin was based on the persistence of full-glacial refugia ³¹, i.e. that during the period of full glaciation the ensuing aridity resulted in the development of savanna areas replacing rain forest so that species became isolated. However recent pollen evidence indicates that there has been no replacement of rainforest by savanna in the last 50,000 years in the Amazonian forests. Instead distribution of endemic species within lowland Amazonia is more likely due to rises of the sea levels taking place during the warm periods ³³.

In any case even into historical times, the true rainforest area of the Atlantic coast (the Atlantic Rainforest) which occurs only along a narrow coastal strip, has remained well separated from the Amazonian basin rainforests by extensive areas of dry (semi-deciduous) tropical forests and savannas to the north and west with even some semi-arid areas in the north preventing the movement of species (Pic 2). The area also differs from the Amazon in that it extends considerably further to the south, well beyond the tropics.