CEOP LBA Santarem Reference Site

The LBA Santarem km 83 site is part of the LBA Project, managed by the Brazilian Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) which is subordinated to Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT). Santarém is located in Western Pará, a port city of 250,000 people at the confluence of the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers. Many of the LBA-ECO intensive study sites are in or near the Tapajós National Forest (Flona Tapajós), which contains nearly 600,000 ha of protected old growth evergreen forest and is located 50 km south of Santarém. This national forest is bordered on the west by the Tapajós River and on the east by the highway BR 163, which intersects the Transamazon Highway about 180 km to the south of Santarém. The region receives about 2 m of rain each year with a seasonal pattern typical of much of eastern and southern Amazonia. The monthly rainfall extremes are March (375 mm) and October (50 mm; SUDAM, 1984). The Flona Tapajós has a variety of landforms and soils, which provide notable ecological contrasts for research. The Santarem site surface type is "Para Forest".