| North |
Amazon Rainforest |
South America |
climate changes have caused the forest to expand and contract |
focuses on intensive exploitation, with ~17 to 20% of the forest cleared, largely for cattle ranching (80% of deforested land) and soy production |
| South |
São Francisco River |
South America |
flowing northward from the Serra da Canastra (Minas Gerais) across the dry sertão interior before turning abruptly east to empty into the Atlantic Ocean |
intensive water exploitation for agriculture, hydroelectric power, and inter-basin transfers to fight droughts in the semiarid northeast |
| Central-West |
Pantanal wetlands |
South America |
a seasonal pulse |
a high reliance on its seasonal pulse—alternating between intense floods and dry seasons—with traditional, low-impact activities now being challenged by intensive modern agriculture, urbanization, and climate-driven, human-induced disasters |
| Southeast |
Rio de Janeiro |
Southeast Region |
a drastic transformation of its landscape, characterized by leveling hills, filling in coastal water, and developing amid steep mountains and the Atlantic Ocean |
rapid urbanization, significant pollution, and hazardous housing |
| Misiones Province |
Iguaçu River |
South region |
from a high-altitude plateau, carving through basaltic rock, to its terminus in a volcanic gorge forming over 275 distinct cascades |
intense exploitation for energy and agriculture |
