Rio Guaxindiba após a década de 1970: (1) Canal Engenheiro Antônio Resen-
de, que começa na Lagoa do Campelo e termina no mar, rasgando a restinga
do princípio ao fim; (2) atual rio Guaxindiba, que agora desemboca no referido
canal, quase no mar; (3) Guaxindiba, a localidade que envolve os dois cursos
d’água
Guaxindiba River after the 1970s: (1) Antônio Resende Engineer Channel, which
begins in Campelo's lagoon and ends in the sea, ripping the restinga from the
beginning to the end; (2) current Guaxindiba River that now flows into the men-
tioned channel, almost at the sea; (3) Guaxindiba, the village that surrounds the
two waterways
Taí Grande, Taí Pequeno, Barreiro, Veiga River, Quipari, Guruçaí,
Campelo and others unnamed.
Curious information is contained in a map articulated in
three sheets that accompanies a general report of one of the
companies that worked for the former National Public Works and
Sanitation Department. On the page 6, the report explains that
the cartographic base for the planimetric representation were
aerial photographs taken in the mid-1955 by Brazilian Air Force
(FAB) and some trigonometric points determined by IBGE. The
map only depicts the southern restinga starting at Carapebus
lagoon, registering the lagoons Paulista, Pacheco, Graça, Baq-
uipari, Padre José, Robalo, Alagoinha, Valão, Jagoroaba, Carril-
ho, Canema, Peri Peri, Capãozinho, Ribeira and others unnamed.
Surprisingly, Fedorenta lagoon reappears in the "Seven Captains
Route", corresponding to the current Pires lagoon. Preta lagoon
is called Valão lagoon and Casa Velha-Ubatuba Lagoon is still
called Jagoroaba lagoon, as well as the channel designed and
executed by Marcellino Ramos da Silva. Between Cape of São
Tomé and Manguinhos, the Açu lagoon (still called Açu River),
Salgada, Taí Pequeno, Iquipari, Grussaí (mistakenly annotated
as Veiga River) and Campelo were signaled(47).
Scientists of the Fluminense Federal University have
been developing an intense research activity in the coastal la-
goons of the southern restinga since the 1980s. Consequent-
ly, Imboacica, Cabiúnas, Comprida and Carapebus lagoons are
amongst the most studied in Brazil. Out of the four, Imboacica is
in critical environmental conditions regarding pollution, eutro-
phication and silting. The others are also at risk. Such studies
have generated many scientific writings(48) including a book of
great significance. On the other hand, the northern restinga has
not deserved so many studies. It is worth mentioning only the
cases of Iquipari and Gruçaí Lagoons, on which scientists from
the Northern Fluminense State University studied with more in-
terest(50).Plants and animals. Perhaps the first scientist to dedi-
cate more systematically to the study of the biotic dimension of
northern Fluminense restingas was the botanist from Campos
dos Goytacazes Alberto José de Sampaio. In 1915, he published
several small studies on natural corridors, the effect of winds on
vegetation, and the behavior of leaf-cutting ants on the dunes
of Gruçaí and Atafona restingas(51,52,53). In Phytogeography of
Brazil, a book resulting from a course given at the National Mu-
seum in 1932, the botanist divides native plant formations into
two major provinces: the Amazonian flora or Brazilian hileia and
the general flora of Brazil or extra-Amazonian. By this classifi-
cation, native non-Amazonian vegetation formations only ac-
quire meaning as a function of hileia. Even so, Alberto Sampaio
tried to draw a typology that would make it possible to under-
stand the American flora in Brazil. The extra-Amazonian flora1
3
2