The Brazilian coast presents, in a surface of about 20 thousand km2, from the Cabo Orange, in Amapá, until the municipal district of Lagoon, in Santa Catarina, a narrow strip of forest call growth of mangroves or swamp. This is composed by a small number of species of trees and it is developed mainly in the estuaries and in the mouth of the rivers, where there are water salobra and semi-sheltered place of the action of the waves, but opened to receive the water of the sea. It is atmosphere with good provisioning of nutrients, where, under the muddy soils, there are a texture of rootses and vegetable material partially decomposed, called turfa. In the estuaries, the muddy funds are crossed by channels of tides (gamboas), used by the fauna for its displacements among the sea, the rivers and the growth of mangroves.
Brazil has one of the largest extensions of growth of mangroves of the world. Belittled in the past, because the presence of the swamp was intimately associated to the yellow fever and the malaria, illnesses already controlled, the word swamp, unhappily, acquired the disorder sense, dirt or suspicious place. The growth of mangroves was for a long considered time an inhospitable atmosphere for the constant presence of borrachudos, mosquitos gunpowder and mutucas. The dark, loamy forests, without aesthetic attractiveness and infected by insects molestantes he/she did with that, even middles of the decade of 70, if he/she thought that the progress of the marine coast was equivalent to clean beaches, cleaned up embankments, ports confined by concrete and cultivation experiments to take advantage of the lands of the old growth of mangroves. Although it is big the economic and social importance of the growth of mangroves, this focus was partly responsible for the construction of ports, spas and coastal highways in its areas, decreasing the extension of the swamps.

Unlike other forests, the growth of mangroves are not rich in species, even so they stand out for the great abundance of the populations that you/they live in them. That they can be considered one of the most productive natural atmospheres of Brazil.

Only three trees constitute the swamp forests: the red or brave swamp, the white swamp and the swamp seriba or seriuba. They live in the zone of the tides, presenting a series of adaptations: breathing rootses (that provision with oxygen the other buried rootses and they decrease the impact of the waves of the tide), capacity of ultrafiltragem of the water salobra and development of the plântulas in the maternal plant, for they be later on dispersed for the water of the sea. The flora of the growth of mangroves can be acrescida of little species, as the samambaia of the swamp, the gramínea Spartina, the bromélia Tillandsia usneoides, the lichen Usnea barbata (the two last known to each other as beard of old and very similar) and the hibiscus.

In the North of the Country, the thick swamp forests present trees that can reach 20 height meters. In the Northeast area there is a type of well-known growth of mangroves as " dry " swamp, with trees of small load in a substratum of high salinity. Already in the Brazilian Southwest, it presents aspect of forest of bushes.
The dark ground of the swamp is covered by water in the high tide. Rich communities of algae grow on the aerial rootses of the trees, in the covered strip for the tide, and, among them, they meet red, green and blue algae. The logs permanently exposed and the cups of the trees are poor in plants epífitas. Bacterias and mushrooms decompose the leaves of the growth of mangroves and the alimentary chain is based on the use of the resulting detritos of this decomposição.
With relationship to the fauna, they stand out several species of crabs, forming enormous populations in the muddy funds. The oysters, mussels, berbigões and cracas he/she/it feeds filtering of the water the small fragments of vegetable detritos, rich in bacterias. There are also species of mollusks that perforate the wood of the logs of trees, building its calcareous tubes there and if feeding of microorganisms that decompose the lignina of the logs, aiding the natural renewal of the ecosystem through the fall of old, very perforated trees.
The shrimps also enter in the swamps during the high tide to feed. Many of the species of fish of the Brazilian coast depend on the alimentary sources of the growth of mangroves, at least in the young phase. Among them they are bagres, robalos, manjubas and tainhas. The wealth of fish attracts predadores, as some species of sharks, cações and even dolphins. The alligator of yellow crop and the toad Puff marinus cannot, occasionally, to be found.

Typical Ave are little, due to the small diversity florística; however, some species use the trees of the swamp as observation points, of rest and of nidificação. These birds feed of fish, crustaceans and mollusks, especially in the tide it lowers, when the muddy funds are exposed. Among the mammals, the coati is specialist in feeding of crabs. The otter, skilled pescadora, is frequent, as well as the crab-eating raccoon.
The growth of mangroves, used by the men of the sambaquis there are more than 7 thousand years and, starting from then, for the populations that happened them, they supply a rich feeding protéica for the population Brazilian litorânea. The handmade fishing of fish, shrimps, crabs and mollusks are for the inhabitants of the coast the main subsistence source.
Although protected by law, the growth of mangroves still suffers with the free destruction, domestic and chemical pollution of the waters, spills of petroleum and not well planned embankments. Brazil shelters some of the largest and more beautiful well-known caves all over the world. More than 2 thousand cavities were already cadastradas for the Brazilian Society of Speleology, no-government organism that congregates the groups dedicated to the research, exploration and protection of the grottos and abysses in the Country.
With the detailed study of the Counties Brazilian Espeleológicas, where they concentrate calcareous, arenitos, quartzitos and other favorable rocks to the formation of caves, the number of these it can reach some dozens of thousands.
The underground atmospheres, generally characterized by the light absence, small temperature variation and humidity and for the lack of vegetation clorofilada, they shelter very peculiar and fragile ecosystems. In them a diversified fauna cavernícola is developed that includes highly specialized animals, as blind and albino and several fish other restricted species the those set. Bats and several other animals found in the external way also use the caves as shelter in different periods of its life cycle.
The Brazilian caves also conserve ossadas and fossil vestiges of a rich extinct fauna, especially of the great mammals (Megatérios, Toxodontes, Gliptodontes and other) of the period Pleistocênico (10 thousand at 1 million years ago).

In the same way, paintings rupestres, sepultamentos, bonfire remains and other testimonies of old people are frequent in our grottos, recognized as important archaeological ranches of world interest.
The amplidão of the entrances of a lot of caves, associated to the atmosphere of dimness and silence, the wealth of its ornamentations and the faith of the Brazilian people transformed many of our caves in important religious temples, visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. The Grottos of Good Jesus of the Cave, Mangabeira and Brejões, in Bahia, and the Cave of the Earth Snores, in Goiás, they are some examples of that practice, sediando great religious parties.
In the last decades, the tourism also comes discovering the beauty and the adventure provided by the Brazilian caves. Great entrances and internal living rooms, lakes and underground waterfalls and the extraordinary beauty of the espeleotemas, as the stalactites, columns, stone flowers and several other ornamentation types, they can be appreciated in more than 50 tourist caves spread by the Country.
Among them they stand out, in São Paulo, Santana's Cave, the Devil's Cave and several another placed in the area of the it is Worth of the Riverside, especially sheltered them for the State Parks of the High Riverside (Petar), Jacupiranga and Intervales. In Minas Gerais, they stand out the grottos of Maquiné, Lapinha and King of the Brushwood, prepared for the mass tourism, and the grottos of controlled visitation of the magnificent it is Worth of Rio Peruaçu; in Ceará, it is famous the Grotto of Ubajara; in Paraná, Furnas of Vila Velha, with more than 100 depth meters; in Mato Grosso of the South, the extraordinary Grotto of the Blue Lake; in Bahia, several and beautiful caves in Plated her Diamantina.
Several Brazilian caves stand out in the international scenery for its dimensions and for its rarity. It is the case of the he/she Plays of Boa Vista, in Bahia, that is the largest grotto of South America with 65,5 kilometers of development and at 19th of the world. The more discharge entrance of caves is also in Brazil, in the Grotto House of Stone, in São Paulo, with 215 height meters. In Minas Gerais they are, simultaneously, the largest grotto (horizontal cave) and the second deeper abyss (vertical cave) in quartzito of the planet, respectively the Grotto of Bromélias, with 2.560 meters, and the cave of the Centennial, with 360 meters of difference. Brazil possesses, still, the largest well-known cave in micaxisto, the Grotto of the Echoes, in Distrito Federal, with 1.380 development meters and a magnificent underground lake that it gets to reach 300 meters in length.

The presence of gigantic underground living rooms, waterfalls with more than 20 fall meters, lakes with more than 120 depth meters and enormous espeleotemas, as the stalactite of 28 meters of the Grotto of Janelão, in Minas Gerais, considered the largest of the world, formed an alliance with the great potential of discovery of new cavities, they also contributed to transform Brazil in one of the countries more sought by expeditions international espeleológicas.
The important natural, cultural, scientific and tourist patrimony represented by the Brazilian caves is today protected by the including legislation on the subject. In Brazil, for force of the Constitution of 1988, all the caves became property of the Union, and wide federal, state and municipal legislation protects those cavities in the national territory, reverting a picture of destruction of the same ones for vandalism, mining and irregular works. The Brazilian Institute of the environment and of the Natural Resources you Renewed (Ibama) it is the responsible organ for the protection and handling of the caves and great part of them is preserved in parks and in another protected areas.
The espeleotemas, of Greek Speleo = cave and Thema = deposit, they are mineral formations that happen in caves, to example of the stalactites, stalagmites, columns, curtains and countless other typologies. Its forms, colors and dimensions depend mainly on the morphology of the grotto, of the type of deposited mineral and of the deposition mechanism (leak, escorrimento, exudação etc.).

Those formations, that can come as much as delicate and fragile stone flowers or as gigantic structures minerals, it is that ornament the cavities increasing its tourist potential and per times religious person, given the likeness, in the imaginary popular, of some espeleotemas with sacred images or zoomórficas. The wealth in espeleotemas places several Brazilian caves among the most beautiful of everyone.
The formation of caves (espeleogênese) it depends essentially on the action of the waters on soluble rocks. Several factors, as the rock type, the climate and the relief interfere in that process, doing with that some areas are more favorable to the formation of grottos and abysses. Such areas, generally formed by rocks carbonárias (calcareous and dolomitas) they present relief denominated carste, where they happen other features, as rocky paredões, arches and stone towers. In Brazil, they are also frequent caves in another rock types, as quartzitos, arenitos, granites, gneiss, bauxite and iron, what enlarges the potential espeleológico of the Country.

The Províncias Espeleológicas are the areas where the occurrence of caves has national expression, being subdivided in areas more homogeneous denominated Districts.

They are the following ones the Districts and Counties Brazilian Espeleológicas: 1 - Província Espeleológica of the it is Worth of the Ribeira Distrito of Iporanga Distrito of Metropolitan Area of Curitiba 2 - Província Espeleológica of Bambuí Distrito of Saint Domingos District of Beautiful District of Pond Santa Distrito Cordisburgo - Montes Claros Distrito Vazante - Paracatu Distrito Arch-Paims District of the Medium San Francisco District of São Desidério Distrito of Irecê - Field Beautiful District of High Paraguaçu 3 - Província Espeleológica of the Mountain of Bodoquena 4 - Província Espeleológica of High Paraguay 5 - Província Espeleológica of the Plated of Ibiapaba 6 - Província Espeleológica of Brown Rio 7 - Província Espeleológica Arenítica of Altinópolis District's Mountain General Distrito Arenítico Arenítico Rio Claro - São Carlos Distrito Arenítico of Vila Velha 8 - Província Espeleológica Arenítica of High Urubu 9 - Província Espeleológica of the Ferrous Quadrilateral 10 - Província Espeleológica of the Mountain of Espinhaço 11 - Província Espeleológica Quartzítica of Ibitipoca 12 - Província Espeleológica Arenítica of Cheerful Monte 13 - Província Espeleológica Arenítica of Altamira 14 - Província Espeleológica Laterítica of Carajás 15 - Província Espeleológica Arenítica of the Plated of Guimarães 16 - Província Espeleológica of Paraná 17 - Província Espeleológica of the Plated of Apodi 18 - Área Espeleológica of Saint João Del Rey - Barbacena 19 - Área Espeleológica of Curaçá - Tubes 20 - Área Espeleológica of it Drains Barrels 21 - Área Espeleológica of the Spirit Saint 22 - Área Espeleológica of the it is Worth of Paraíba of the South - it Saws of the Sea 23 - Área Espeleológica Bauxítica of the it is Worth of Rio Piriá 24 - Área Espeleológica of the Group Araxá 25 - Região Carbonática of the Centro Leste of Saint Catarina 26 - Região Carbonática of Big Rio of the South FAUNA 27 - Other occurrences With more than 600 species already classified, the fauna Brazilian cavernícola is the richest of South America.
The caves shelter very differentiated atmospheres of the external way, generally characterized by the light absence and of superior vegetation, for the small humidity variation and temperature and for the peculiar chemical composition of the air and of the water. Each cave can present different habitats (lakes and rivers, clay banks, deposits of bat guano etc.) and different ecological zones in the largest's function or smaller distance da(s) entrada(s).
In the atmosphere cavernícola he/she meets a fauna very characteristic adapted to those environmental conditions, being the animals classified in three main groups: Troglóbios: exclusive Animals of the caves, that generally present physiologic adaptations, comportamentais and morphologic (despigmentação, atrophies of the eyes, etc.). Pisces, crustaceans and insects, for example, they are already common among the species of that group identified in the caves of Brazil.
Troglófilos: Species adapted ecologicamente to the caves, but that don't present specializations that also impede its development in the external atmosphere. Crustaceans, spiders, opilões and insects are common among the Brazilian troglófilos.
Trogloxenos: surface Animals that use the caves regularly as shelter, refuge, local of feeding or reproduction. Dentre the trogloxenos stands out the bats, that, daily, they leave the cave to feed.
Brazil shelters some of the largest and more beautiful well-known caves all over the world. More than 2 thousand cavities were already cadastradas for the Brazilian Society of Speleology, no-government organism that congregates the groups dedicated to the research, exploration and protection of the grottos and abysses in the Country.
With the detailed study of the Counties Brazilian Espeleológicas, where they concentrate calcareous, arenitos, quartzitos and other favorable rocks to the formation of caves, the number of these it can reach some dozens of thousands.
The underground atmospheres, generally characterized by the light absence, small temperature variation and humidity and for the lack of vegetation clorofilada, they shelter very peculiar and fragile ecosystems. In them a diversified fauna cavernícola is developed that includes highly specialized animals, as blind and albino and several fish other restricted species the those set. Bats and several other animals found in the external way also use the caves as shelter in different periods of its life cycle.
The Brazilian caves also conserve ossadas and fossil vestiges of a rich extinct fauna, especially of the great mammals (Megatérios, Toxodontes, Gliptodontes and other) of the period Pleistocênico (10 thousand at 1 million years ago).

In the same way, paintings rupestres, sepultamentos, bonfire remains and other testimonies of old people are frequent in our grottos, recognized as important archaeological ranches of world interest.
The amplidão of the entrances of a lot of caves, associated to the atmosphere of dimness and silence, the wealth of its ornamentations and the faith of the Brazilian people transformed many of our caves in important religious temples, visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. The Grottos of Good Jesus of the Cave, Mangabeira and Brejões, in Bahia, and the Cave of the Earth Snores, in Goiás, they are some examples of that practice, sediando great religious parties.
In the last decades, the tourism also comes discovering the beauty and the adventure provided by the Brazilian caves. Great entrances and internal living rooms, lakes and underground waterfalls and the extraordinary beauty of the espeleotemas, as the stalactites, columns, stone flowers and several other ornamentation types, they can be appreciated in more than 50 tourist caves spread by the Country.
Among them they stand out, in São Paulo, Santana's Cave, the Devil's Cave and several another placed in the area of the it is Worth of the Riverside, especially sheltered them for the State Parks of the High Riverside (Petar), Jacupiranga and Intervales. In Minas Gerais, they stand out the grottos of Maquiné, Lapinha and King of the Brushwood, prepared for the mass tourism, and the grottos of controlled visitation of the magnificent it is Worth of Rio Peruaçu; in Ceará, it is famous the Grotto of Ubajara; in Paraná, Furnas of Vila Velha, with more than 100 depth meters; in Mato Grosso of the South, the extraordinary Grotto of the Blue Lake; in Bahia, several and beautiful caves in Plated her Diamantina.
Several Brazilian caves stand out in the international scenery for its dimensions and for its rarity. It is the case of the he/she Plays of Boa Vista, in Bahia, that is the largest grotto of South America with 65,5 kilometers of development and at 19th of the world. The more discharge entrance of caves is also in Brazil, in the Grotto House of Stone, in São Paulo, with 215 height meters. In Minas Gerais they are, simultaneously, the largest grotto (horizontal cave) and the second deeper abyss (vertical cave) in quartzito of the planet, respectively the Grotto of Bromélias, with 2.560 meters, and the cave of the Centennial, with 360 meters of difference. Brazil possesses, still, the largest well-known cave in micaxisto, the Grotto of the Echoes, in Distrito Federal, with 1.380 development meters and a magnificent underground lake that it gets to reach 300 meters in length.

The presence of gigantic underground living rooms, waterfalls with more than 20 fall meters, lakes with more than 120 depth meters and enormous espeleotemas, as the stalactite of 28 meters of the Grotto of Janelão, in Minas Gerais, considered the largest of the world, formed an alliance with the great potential of discovery of new cavities, they also contributed to transform Brazil in one of the countries more sought by expeditions international espeleológicas.
The important natural, cultural, scientific and tourist patrimony represented by the Brazilian caves is today protected by the including legislation on the subject. In Brazil, for force of the Constitution of 1988, all the caves became property of the Union, and wide federal, state and municipal legislation protects those cavities in the national territory, reverting a picture of destruction of the same ones for vandalism, mining and irregular works. The Brazilian Institute of the environment and of the Natural Resources you Renewed (Ibama) it is the responsible organ for the protection and handling of the caves and great part of them is preserved in parks and in another protected areas.
GROWTH OF MANGROVES THE Brazilian coast presents, in a surface of about 20 thousand km2, from the Cabo Orange, in Amapá, until the municipal district of Lagoon, in Santa Catarina, a narrow strip of forest call growth of mangroves or swamp. This is composed by a small number of species of trees and it is developed mainly in the estuaries and in the mouth of the rivers, where there are water salobra and semi-sheltered place of the action of the waves, but opened to receive the water of the sea. It is atmosphere with good provisioning of nutrients, where, under the muddy soils, there are a texture of rootses and vegetable material partially decomposed, called turfa. In the estuaries, the muddy funds are crossed by channels of tides (gamboas), used by the fauna for its displacements among the sea, the rivers and the growth of mangroves.
Brazil has one of the largest extensions of growth of mangroves of the world. Belittled in the past, because the presence of the swamp was intimately associated to the yellow fever and the malaria, illnesses already controlled, the word swamp, unhappily, acquired the disorder sense, dirt or suspicious place. The growth of mangroves was for a long considered time an inhospitable atmosphere for the constant presence of borrachudos, mosquitos gunpowder and mutucas. The dark, loamy forests, without aesthetic attractiveness and infected by insects molestantes he/she did with that, even middles of the decade of 70, if he/she thought that the progress of the marine coast was equivalent to clean beaches, cleaned up embankments, ports confined by concrete and cultivation experiments to take advantage of the lands of the old growth of mangroves. Although it is big the economic and social importance of the growth of mangroves, this focus was partly responsible for the construction of ports, spas and coastal highways in its areas, decreasing the extension of the swamps.

Unlike other forests, the growth of mangroves are not rich in species, even so they stand out for the great abundance of the populations that you/they live in them. That they can be considered one of the most productive natural atmospheres of Brazil.

Only three trees constitute the swamp forests: the red or brave swamp, the white swamp and the swamp seriba or seriuba. They live in the zone of the tides, presenting a series of adaptations: breathing rootses (that provision with oxygen the other buried rootses and they decrease the impact of the waves of the tide), capacity of ultrafiltragem of the water salobra and development of the plântulas in the maternal plant, for they be later on dispersed for the water of the sea. The flora of the growth of mangroves can be acrescida of little species, as the samambaia of the swamp, the gramínea Spartina, the bromélia Tillandsia usneoides, the lichen Usnea barbata (the two last known to each other as beard of old and very similar) and the hibiscus.

In the North of the Country, the thick swamp forests present trees that can reach 20 height meters. In the Northeast area there is a type of well-known growth of mangroves as " dry " swamp, with trees of small load in a substratum of high salinity. Already in the Brazilian Southwest, it presents aspect of forest of bushes.
The dark ground of the swamp is covered by water in the high tide. Rich communities of algae grow on the aerial rootses of the trees, in the covered strip for the tide, and, among them, they meet red, green and blue algae. The logs permanently exposed and the cups of the trees are poor in plants epífitas. Bacterias and mushrooms decompose the leaves of the growth of mangroves and the alimentary chain is based on the use of the resulting detritos of this decomposição.
With relationship to the fauna, they stand out several species of crabs, forming enormous populations in the muddy funds. The oysters, mussels, berbigões and cracas he/she/it feeds filtering of the water the small fragments of vegetable detritos, rich in bacterias. There are also species of mollusks that perforate the wood of the logs of trees, building its calcareous tubes there and if feeding of microorganisms that decompose the lignina of the logs, aiding the natural renewal of the ecosystem through the fall of old, very perforated trees.
The shrimps also enter in the swamps during the high tide to feed. Many of the species of fish of the Brazilian coast depend on the alimentary sources of the growth of mangroves, at least in the young phase. Among them they are bagres, robalos, manjubas and tainhas. The wealth of fish attracts predadores, as some species of sharks, cações and even dolphins. The alligator of yellow crop and the toad Puff marinus cannot, occasionally, to be found.

Typical Ave are little, due to the small diversity florística; however, some species use the trees of the swamp as observation points, of rest and of nidificação. These birds feed of fish, crustaceans and mollusks, especially in the tide it lowers, when the muddy funds are exposed. Among the mammals, the coati is specialist in feeding of crabs. The otter, skilled pescadora, is frequent, as well as the crab-eating raccoon.
The growth of mangroves, used by the men of the sambaquis there are more than 7 thousand years and, starting from then, for the populations that happened them, they supply a rich feeding protéica for the population Brazilian litorânea. The handmade fishing of fish, shrimps, crabs and mollusks are for the inhabitants of the coast the main subsistence source.
Although protected by law, the growth of mangroves still suffers with the free destruction, domestic and chemical pollution of the waters, spills of petroleum and not well planned embankments.