Brazil Eco Adventure Tours
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Atlantic Rainforest
Soils

 Böden   Suelos   Solos 
The soils of the Atlantic Rainforest / (Mata Atlântica) and associated ecosystems vary according to topography and geological origin and determine the vegetation & flora which develops on it.

The coastal and inland mountain ranges of the Serra do Mar, the isolated mountains and hills in the plains and the coastal islands were formed by volcanic processes of a long time ago and are constituted by ancient crystalline rocks of the Pre-Cambrian period ( about 600 million years ago). Intensively formed by erosive agents such as wind, water and strong temperature variations, which resulted in a slow alteration and dissipation of these rocks, the elevations of the Serra do Mar were sculptured and large quantities of sediments were deposited at the feet of the mountains.

Specifically those soils formed by terrestrial sedimentation gave rise to the typical vegetation of the Dense Ombrophilous or Atlantic Rainforest.

Soils
 
Contingent upon the topographic gradient encountered vegetation & floras differs between: Campos de Altitude, Cloud Forest, Montane Rain Forest, Lowland Rain Forest and Riparian Rain Forest.

In contrast, the soils of the coastal plains were formed by marine, fluvial and fluvio-marine sedimentation of recent geological times which gave rise to pioneer formations presenting vegetational types such as restinga, beaches and dunes (marine), herbaceous swamps (brejos) and "caxetais" (fluvial) and mangroves (fluvio-marine).
 
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