Rio Grande, Brazil
The extraordinarily large lagoon is partly brackish at its exit to the sea at Cassino. The ecoregion of the lagoon and its southern neighbour, the also large Lagoa Mirrim, includes a variety of aquatic habitats, including brackish-salt coastal lagoons, freshwater coastal lagoons, swamps, marshes, seasonal and permanent freshwater ponds, rivers, and streams. It contains a unique assemblage of species of the southern Atlantic coastal drainages. Rio Grande is a port city in Rio Grande do Sul, a large coastal state in southeastern Brazil, and the Rio Grande (the river this time) is the outlet for the Lagoa to the Atlantic Ocean.