The Monte Alegre várzea is a seasonally flooded forest ecoregion of the central and lower Amazon basin in northern Brazil, following the Amazon, Madeira, and Purus rivers, with an isolated patch along the Mamoré River on the Brazil–Bolivia border. These várzea forests grow along whitewater rivers, which carry heavy sediment from the Andes and rise by roughly 6 to 12 meters to inundate the land for as long as eight months each year, shaping a mosaic of flood-adapted trees, palms, shrubs, herbs, and tall riverside grasses. Characteristic plants include palms such as açaí (Euterpe oleracea), Mauritia flexuosa, and Astrocaryum jauari, hardwoods like Virola surinamensis and Calycophyllum spruceanum, and fruit-bearing species such as Vitex cymosa, alongside cane grasses like Gynerium sagittatum. The climate is equatorial and consistently warm and wet, with annual rainfall generally lower in the east and higher toward the western Madeira. The region supports about 200 mammal species, including jaguar, tapir, and the endemic Santarém marmoset, plus well over 600 bird species, yet the WWF classifies it as Critical/Endangered owing to gold-mining contamination and clearing of floodplain forest for cattle pasture.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 4.1°S, 62.4°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +4.4°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Neotropic
Approximate area
25,804 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: