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Natural Landscapes Along Brazilian Coastline

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The Physical Geography of Brazil

Part of the book series: Geography of the Physical Environment ((GEOPHY))

Abstract

The Brazilian coastline extends from 8500 km from Northern Hemisphere 4° to the 34° in South Latitude, covering different natural landscapes. By landscapes, we understand the relationship between geomorphological and geological conditions and vegetation cover, and process involving climate and oceanography that shape the landscapes. This chapter presents a synthesis or an overview of different landscape patterns observed along the Brazilian coastline. Using this simple approach, we regionalized five different segments where we observe common landscape characteristics. The first two segments (northern and northeastern) is part of Caraíba alignment, i.e., NNE to SSW alignment. Three others refer to Brasiliana direction, where the coastline assumes predominant NNE to SSW pattern. The northern segment is classified as tidal flats in association of several estuaries , covered by mangroves in an equatorial zone and extended from Cape Orange to São Marcos Bay . Coastal dunes and Neogene predominant rocky coasts , with savannas distributed in the semiarid zone, are classified as northeastern landscape domain. This second segment marks the landscapes individualized from São Marcos Bay to Cape Calcanhar . The inflection to the S/SE direction, from Cabo Calcanhar to Cape Frio , the eastern coastline is marked by Neogene rocky coasts and wave-dominated deltas covered by Atlantic rainforest, along the tropical zone. It is important to mention that series of coral reefs disperse close to the coastline. From Cape Frio to Cape Santa Marta , the southeastern region is defined by granitic and gneisses rocky coast, and narrow coastal plains , covered by Atlantic rainforests , in the tropical zone. The last segment, in the southern part of Brazil, is characterized by Quaternary plains formed by coastal sandy barriers and lagoons with Restingas vegetation, distributed in tempered climate condition. At the end of this chapter, we present some information regarding oceanic volcanic islands as part of Brazilian territory, showing predominant landscapes vary from shore platforms and beaches formed by carbonate materials and siliciclastic sediments. Along each segment, we mention some problems regarding coastal erosion and other typical problems associated with pressure of socioeconomic activities.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editors that trust this chapter with a very few time to finish and a lot of patience to wait. The correspondent author thanks the co-authors who made this work possible by their contribution. We would like to thank Alberto Figueiredo Jr., André Silva, Carlos Guedes, Daniella Soares, Davis Pereira, Eduardo Baume, João Regis dos Santos, Rafael Cuellar that kindly gave some of the pictures that we use in this manuscript. To Pedro Fernandes for the all the support about the maps, presented in this chapter, we are very grateful.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Brazil

    Guilherme Borges Fernandez & Thais Baptista da Rocha

  2. Institute of Geosciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Eduardo Guimarães Barboza, Sergio Rebello Dillenburg & Maria Luiza Correa da Camara Rosa

  3. Department of Geology, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil

    Rodolfo José Angulo, Maria Cristina de Souza & Luiz Henrique Sielski de Oliveira

  4. Department of Sedimentology, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil

    Jose Maria Landim Dominguez

Authors
  1. Guilherme Borges Fernandez
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  2. Thais Baptista da Rocha
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  3. Eduardo Guimarães Barboza
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  4. Sergio Rebello Dillenburg
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  5. Maria Luiza Correa da Camara Rosa
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  6. Rodolfo José Angulo
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  7. Maria Cristina de Souza
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  8. Luiz Henrique Sielski de Oliveira
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  9. Jose Maria Landim Dominguez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guilherme Borges Fernandez .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    André Augusto Rodrigues Salgado

  2. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil

    Leonardo José Cordeiro Santos

  3. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), State University of Western Paraná, Francisco Beltrão, Paraná, Brazil

    Julio César Paisani

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Fernandez, G.B. et al. (2019). Natural Landscapes Along Brazilian Coastline. In: Salgado, A., Santos, L., Paisani, J. (eds) The Physical Geography of Brazil . Geography of the Physical Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04333-9_10

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