Caracterização ambiental da Ilha Grande, Baía da Babitonga, São Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina

Babitonga Bay (BB) includes the last major mangrove formation in the southern hemisphere, being the most important estuary of Santa Catarina and including 206 islands.In order to carry out an environmental characterization of Ilha Grande (IG), of BB, field visits were performed from July 2018 to March 2020 and a bibliographic review about the island was realized. The IG is located in the central portion of BB, with an approximate area of 329,506 m2, perimeter of 2,971 m, elevation of up to 46 m, Cfa type climate, average annual precipitation of 1,874 mm and predominant northwest and east winds.The island shows four classes of land use: restinga vegetation, mangroves, exposed soil and urbanized area.The latter represents 2025% of the island’s surface (25 residences, two of which are abandoned). The vegetation includes formations of rain forest, mangrove, open field and sandbank. There were 131 sampled plant species, 39 of which are endemic to Brazil. There are 28 exotic species, of which eleven are naturalized and three are cultivated. Of the total plant species, 34 are used anthropically: ornamental (20), edible (12) and cultivated (2). The numerous ornamental gardens enrich the local flora but the presence of Pinus cf. elliottii and Eucalyptus sp. threaten the native flora.