The Uruguayan savanna, also known as the Brazilian-Uruguayan savanna, is a subtropical grassland and savanna

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

which includes all of

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

and southernmost

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, along with portions of Argentina along the Uruguay River, In

, this

is know as

Pampas The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazi ...

Geography

The Uruguayan savanna covers an area of 353,573 km², covering the entirety of Uruguay and much of Brazil's

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a state in the southern region of Brazil. It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is border ...

state. It is bounded on the east by the

South Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and on the south by the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

estuary. The

Uruguay River The Uruguay River ( es, Río Uruguay, ; pt, Rio Uruguai, ) is a major river in South America. It flows from north to south and forms parts of the boundaries of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of La M ...

forms the western boundary. To the north it transitions to the

Alto Paraná Atlantic forests The Alto Paraná Atlantic forests, also known as the Paraná-Paraíba interior forests, is an ecoregion of the tropical moist forests biome, and the South American Atlantic Forest biome. It is located in southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, ...

and

Araucaria moist forests The Araucaria moist forests, officially classified as mixed ombrophilous forest (Portuguese: "Floresta Ombrófila Mista") in Brazil, are a montane subtropical moist forest ecoregion. The forest ecosystem is located in southern Brazil and northeast ...

of southern Brazil. The topography is generally low, extending from sea level up to 500 meters elevation. There are coastal lagoons along the Atlantic shore including Lagoa dos Patos in Brazil, which rise to rolling hills in the eastern part of the ecoregion. The western portion of the ecoregion is drained by tributaries of the Uruguay River, including the Ibicuí,

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

, Tacuarembó, Yí, and Queguay. Cities in the ecoregion include

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

, Uruguay's capital and largest city, and

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the twelfth most populous city in the country and the center of Brazil's fif ...

in Brazil.

Climate

Average annual rainfall ranges from 1000 mm in the south to 1300 mm in the north. Temperature averages 16 °C annually in the south and 19 °C in the north.

Flora

The ecoregion consists mostly of medium-tall grasslands, with areas of palm savanna, gallery forests along rivers, and enclaves of submontane forest.

Fauna

Grazing mammals include the Pampas Deer ''(Ozotoceros bezoarticus)'', the Gray Brocket or Guazuvirá Deer ''(Mazama gouazoubira)'', and the

capybara The capybaraAlso called capivara (in Brazil), capiguara (in Bolivia), chigüire, chigüiro, or fercho (in Colombia and Venezuela), carpincho (in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and ronsoco (in Peru). or greater capybara (''Hydrochoerus hydro ...

''(Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)'', the world's largest living

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

. The ecoregion is home to 80 species of birds. These include the

greater rhea The greater rhea (''Rhea americana'') is a species of flightless bird native to eastern South America. Other names for the greater rhea include the grey, common, or American rhea; ema (Portuguese); or ñandú ( Guaraní and Spanish). One of two ...

(''Rhea americana''), ochre-breasted pipit (''Anthus nattereri''), yellow cardinal (''Gubernatrix cristata''), saffron-cowled blackbird (''Xanthopsar flavus'') and

pampas meadowlark The Pampas meadowlark (''Leistes defilippii'') is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are temperate shrubland, pampas grassland, subtropical or tropical dry lowland gra ...

(''Sturnella militaris'').

Protected areas

3.43% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. These include

El Palmar National Park El Palmar National Park (in Spanish, ''Parque Nacional El Palmar'') is one of Argentina's national parks, located on the center-east of the province of Entre Ríos, midway between the cities of Colón (54 km) and Concordia (60 km). ...

in Argentina, and San Miguel National Park, Esteros de Farrapos e Islas del Rio Uruguay National Park, Cabo Polonio National Park, Potrero de San Lorenzo National Reserve, and Quebrada de los Cuervos y Sierras del Yerbal Protected Landscape in Uruguay.

External links

* *

References

{{coord missing, South America Ecoregions of South America Grasslands of South America Ecoregions of Brazil Environment of Uruguay * Flora of Brazil Grasslands of Brazil Grasslands of Uruguay Neotropical ecoregions Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Rio Grande do Sul