Campina is a
Neotropical
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In biogeogra ...
ecoregion found in the
Amazon biome
The Amazon biome () contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater river, blackwater and whitewa ...
. It refers to vegetation that grows on infertile sandy soil with poor drainage. The term may be used to include open forest, shrubland and meadow, or may be restricted to treeless meadows.
Open forest
The term ''campina'' is related to ''
campinarana
Campinarana (NT0158, ), also called Rio Negro Campinarana, is a neotropical ecoregion in the Amazon biome of the north west of Brazil, southern Venezuela, and the east of Colombia that contains vegetation adapted to extremely poor soil. It includ ...
''.
The meaning of both is "wild field", and some consider that they are the same.
The terms ''campina'' and ''campinarana'' both describe white sand savannas that are very poor in nutrients.
They may be flooded periodically or seasonally, in which case the roots suffer from lack of aeration.
The vegetation is stunted.
Amazon ''campinas'' are defined as open forest on sandy soil where sunlight can reach the ground.
More than half the species of orchid in the Amazon lowlands are found in this type of forest.
The ''campina'' areas of the Amazon have a flowering peak in the dry season.
Treeless shrubland or meadow
For others, ''campina'' is distinguished as being completely treeless.
The term "campinarana" is used for the transition between ''campina'' and the rainforest.
One author distinguishes between a ''campina'' shrubland and scrubby ''campinarana'' forest, both of which grow on white sand soil typically associated with large stream gullies.
In this view the ''campinarana'' is a pseudo-campina and, "is, in fact, neither a campina nor a true, dense forest...".
A Brazilian forestry institute defines ''campina'' as a type of terrestrial
biome
A biome () is a distinct geographical region with specific climate, vegetation, and animal life. It consists of a biological community that has formed in response to its physical environment and regional climate. In 1935, Tansley added the ...
consisting of open fields, completely denuded of trees.
The meadows may occur in natural conditions, or may be man-made.
These areas are low in varieties of species, but have high numbers of endemic species.
A description of the
Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve states that ''campinas'' and ''campinaranas'' are abundant but very fragile, mainly due to their sandy soil.
They have many endemic species.
The ''campinas'' have tourist potential due to their scenic beauty and large numbers of
bromeliad
The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...
s and
orchid
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...
s.
References
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Further reading
* Guimarães, F. S., & Bueno, G. T. (2016). As campinas e campinaranas amazônicas/The amazonian campinas and campinaranas. ''Caderno de Geografia'', 26(45): 113-133
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Ecoregions of Brazil