The Tapajós National Forest (Portuguese: Floresta Nacional do Tapajós) is a Brazilian national forest in the state of Pará, Brazil.
It supports sustainable exploitation of the natural resources in an area of Amazon rainforest.
Location
The Tapajós National Forest has an area of 549,066.87 hectares (1,356,773.8 acres).[1]
It is in the municipalities of Belterra, Aveiro, Rurópolis and Placas in the state of Pará.[2]
The unit is bounded by the Tapajós, the Cupari River, a tributary of the Tapajós, and the BR-163 Santarém–Cuiabá road.
Part of the forest drains into the Tapajós to the west, and part drains into the Curuá Una River basin to the east.
The Moju River, a tributary of the Curuá-Una, rises in the forest.[2]
The side of the forest along the banks of the Tapajós has elevations of about 100 metres (330 ft) cut by ravines and deep valleys.
The flat areas are periodically flooded in the rainy season.
Further from the river the forest is on the Tapajós-Xingu plateau, with elevations of 120 to 170 metres (390 to 560 ft).[2]
Environment
The Tapajós National Forest is in the Amazon biome.[1]
Average annual rainfall is 1,820 millimetres (72 in).
Temperatures range from 21 to 31 °C (70 to 88 °F) with an average of 26 °C (79 °F).[2]
A Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) project is quantifying the net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide and water in a primary Tapajós forest site, defining the net source or sink of CO2 from the undisturbed forest.[3]
This is an international research initiative by Harvard University and Brazil's National Institute for Space Research(INPE).
It investigates the way in which changes in land use and climate will affect the chemical, biological, and physical functions of the Amazon region and the global climate.[3]
Ayres, José Márcio; Da Fonseca, Gustavo A. B.; Rylands, Anthony B.; Queiroz, Helder L.; Pinto, Luiz Paulo; Masterson, Donald; Cavalcanti, Roberto B. (2005), Os Corredores Ecológicos das Florestas Tropicais do Brasil(PDF) (in Portuguese), Sociedade Civil Mamirauá, retrieved 2016-10-28