The Pantanal is a vast lowland floodplain centered on the Paraguay River, spanning the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso and reaching into Bolivia and Paraguay. It holds the world's largest tropical wetland and largest flooded grasslands, where vegetation forms a mosaic that blends Brazilian cerrado savanna, Amazonian, Chaco, and semiarid woodland communities; grasses and aquatic plants dominate the seasonally inundated flats while gallery and semideciduous forests occupy the slightly higher ground. The climate is tropical wet-and-dry, and during the rainy season roughly 80 percent of the region is submerged, a flood pulse that shapes habitat structure and species behavior through the year. This near-pristine but only lightly protected ecoregion supports an exceptional concentration of wildlife, including the largest jaguars on the continent, giant otters, marsh deer, and hyacinth macaws. For water gardeners, its native aquatic flora features familiar floating ornamentals such as water hyacinth and water lettuce.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 18.2°S, 57.0°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13a-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +4.2°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
Flooded Grasslands & Savannas
Realm
Neotropic
Approximate area
66,047 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
About the flooded grasslands & savannas biome
Grasslands and savannas subject to seasonal or year-round flooding, including large wetland complexes. Exceptionally productive, they concentrate waterbirds and aquatic life.
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 flooded grasslands & savannas ecoregions to explore: