AREA

Caxiuanã National Forest (Caxiuanã) is a 200,000 ha reserve located along Caxiuanã Bay of the Alto Anapu River, about 30 km south of the Amazon River in central Pará. The Ferreira Penna Scientific Station (ECFPn) was created in 1989, when the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), within Brazil's Ministry of the Environment, ceded 33,000 ha of Caxiuanã to the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, the natural history museum of Pará located in Belém (Lisboa 1997; Lisboa & Ferraz 1999). The Museu Goeldi planned and oversaw the building of a research facility in ECFPn, inaugurated in 1993, to promote and facilitate the study of eastern Amazonian biodiversity. This is a 3,000 m² complex of laboratories, a computing center, library, auditorium, commissary, and dormitories, which can accommodate up to 50 researchers (Lisboa 1997). All the principal vegetation types occurring in eastern Amazonia can be found in Caxiuanã and the ECFPn portion of the reserve, a significant factor in the Museu Goeldi's decision to locate their research station in Caxiuanã (Lisboa 1997). About 80% of ECFPn's 33,000 ha (more than 20 times the size of La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica) is covered in terra firme forest. Ilkiu-Borges et al. (n.d.) recently found 645 species (65 families, 231 genera) of trees over 10 cm DBH in a study of nine 1 ha plots in ECFPn terra firme forest. Preliminary floristic and ecological studies have also been undertaken in the station's inundated vegetation (both igapó and várzea) savanna patches, and secondary vegetation [small (to 5 ha) regenerating clearings (recent to 50 years old) that, in total, occupy about 3% of ECFPn] (e.g., Almeida et al. 1993; Ferreira et al. 1997; Lisboa & Nazaré 1997, n.d.; Lisboa et al 1997; Ilkiu-Borges, et al. n.d.; Sotão et al 1997, n.d.). Initial surveys of some animal groups have also been carried out in ECFPn (e.g., Esposito 1997; Martins & Lise 1997; Overal et al. 1997; Valente & Vanin n.d.). At least one of the co-authors on all of the papers cited above (most affiliated with the Museu Goeldi) will be collaborating on the project here proposed. Because of the diversity of habitats within Caxiuanã, the excellent ECFPn research facilities, the preliminary floristic and faunistic research that has already been conducted, and the experience of many project participants at the station, Caxiuanã was chosen as the site to initiate the multi-taxon inventory of eastern Amazonia.

IMAGES

Maps from Brazil, Belém and Caxiuanã
Pictures from Caxiuanã station