Note: This website is no longer being updated and is being
maintained for archive purposes by the Department of Botany,
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Please see About the Project for further details. ATLANTIC MOIST
FOREST The Atlantic Coast tropical forest (picture) originally
extended along much of the Brazilian coast, from easternmost
South America in the State of Rio Grande do Norte southward to
Rio Grande do Sul, forming a narrow fringe between the ocean and
the dry uplands of the planalto (Collins 1990). In southern
Bahia, this forest (picture) occupied a zone c. 100-200 km wide,
extending southward from south of Salvador to northern Espírito
Santo State (Gouvêa, Silva and Hori 1976; Mori et al. 1983; Mori
1989). The remainder is mainly in seven separated tracts from c.
15°-17°30'S, between Ilhéus and Punta da Baleia (Collins 1990).
The forest becomes progressively drier inland, and is replaced
by "caatinga" or "cerrado" of the planalto (see respectively CPD
Sites SA19 and