Search

The Atlantic Rainforest is a Neotropical plant formation, traditionally present in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. In Brazil, it followed the country coastal zone, from Rio Grande do Norte to Rio Grande do Sul, reaching inland the Province of Misiones in north-eastern Argentina, and east of Paraguay. It is a threatened tropical forest and its surface has been fragmented discontinuously due to intensive deforestation of the biome, mainly in the twentieth century. It still holds one of the greatest biodiversities on the planet. It covered important stretches of mountain ranges and escarpments of the Brazilian plateau and was the extension of the Amazon rainforest. It was the second largest tropical forest in expansion in South America. The largest area continues as original surviving forest, the best preserved of this ecosystem is in the Argentine province of Misiones. However, Uruguay has small remnants of Atlantic forest that make it the final limit of the southern distribution. The edaphoclimatic conditions of Uruguay are different from those in the rest of this biome. It has four distinct seasons with contrasting temperatures. The low relief soil does not represent a physical barrier for the winds, making the changes of weather very variable. The aim of this work is to describe five genetic resources species of this biome, its potential for reforestation and productivity in the current scenario of climate change. These are Parapiptadenia rigida, Ilex paraguariensis,Myrcianthes pungens, Eugenia invlolucrata, and Cordia americana. We propose Conservation in situ, improvement and international germplasm interchange.