thick, also known as the Brazilian savanna, is one of the largest biomes in Brazil and South America. It is a biome of great biodiversity and also has an enormous water potential, being considered the cradle of water in the country. It has particular characteristics in fauna, flora and vegetation. Currently, it is one of the biomes that suffers most from devastation.
Characteristics of the Cerrado
Area |
2,036,448 km2 (22% of the national territory) |
Location in Brazil |
Northeast of Paraguay, east of Bolivia, being predominant in the Central Plateau of Brazil, covering the states of Goiás, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Maranhão, Piauí, Rondônia, Paraná, São Paulo and the Federal District, in addition to enclaves in Amapá, Roraima and Amazons. |
Watersheds |
It houses springs from the basins: Amazon, Tocantins, San Francisco, Paraná, Prata, Paraguay and Parnaíba. |
Biogeographic boundaries |
It is limited to the North with the Amazon biome; to the East and Northeast with the Caatinga; to the southwest with the wetland; and to the Southeast with the Atlantic forest. |
Altitude |
Ranges from 0 to 1800 meters. |
Read too:Brazilian Biomes
Cerrado vegetation and flora
The vegetation of the Cerrado presents a great diversity of landscape, consisting of trees and shrubs.
The Cerrado is considered one of the biomes of biggerbiodiversity. The vegetation is quite diverse, including rural forms, such as the clean fields, and dense forest formations, such as the thickets.
Also know:Types of vegetation in Brazil
There is, in this biome, eleven main types of vegetation, according to the Ministry of the Environment, distributed in the mentioned clear fields and cerrados. That diversity, in the aspect of vegetation, is related to the extension and predominant characteristics of the ground, climate and relief.
The Cerrado houses, approximately, 11.627 species of native plants, and of this total, about 4.400 species are endemic (only exist in this biome). There are plant species arboreal, herbaceous, shrubs and vines. The main colors found in this biome are the shades of green, yellow and brown, due to the discoloration suffered due to intense solar radiation.
Some species have trunks crooked and thick, reaching up to 20 meters in height. Roots can reach up to 15 meters in depth, ensuring water uptake during the dry season. Species with shallower roots (up to 30 centimeters deep) dry their branches during the dry period, providing burned.
The pequi tree is one of the species of the Cerrado flora.
Examples:
pequi tree
Aroeira
Copaiba
stick
angelic
Barbatimão
Climate
The predominant climate in the Cerrado is the tropical seasonal, which consists of two well-defined seasons: a dry winter and a rainy summer. The dry period starts in May and ends in September. The rainy season starts in October and extends until April. The average precipitation is 1500 mm. The average temperature is 22°C, varying throughout the seasons. Humidity can reach 15% in the months of July and August.
Read too:Types of climate in Brazil
Fauna
The rhea is one of the typical species of the Brazilian Cerrado.
The Cerrado fauna is little known, however it presents a variety of animal species with emphasis on the group of insects. There are about 837 bird species (29 endemic); 185 reptile species (24 endemic); 194 mammal species (19 endemic); and 150 amphibian species (45 endemic). Studies point to the existence of 14.425 invertebrate species in the Cerrado.|1|
Read too:Fauna and Flora
Examples:
emu
seriema
Toucan
Guara wolf
Jararaca
giant anteater
pampas deer
Jaguar
Ground
The soils of the Cerrado are dated from the Tertiary Period. Predominate the soils sandy and clayey, of diversified textures, with the preponderance of sand, clay and silt. They are mostly reddish, porous and permeable, which makes them favoring processes of leaching (washing of the topsoil due to surface water runoff).
Read more:Types of soil in Brazil
The existing soil types are the oxisols, of extreme acidity, reddish color and rotten in nutrients, and also the podzolics or argisols,characterized by their darker color and by being susceptible to erosive processes.
Cerrado soils are normally acidic, with pH ranging between 4 and 5, due to the presence of high levels of aluminum. There is a lack of nutrients and excessive acidity, hindering the development of agriculture, which then needs to be corrected through techniques such as liming (the action of fertilizing the land with lime).
Types of Cerrado
In the Cerrado biome, there is a great variety of landscapes due to its extension and also because it is limited to many biomes. Due to this diversity, many ask what are the Cerrado types, however, this is not the correct term to refer to the variation of these landscapes. The correct term, then, is “cerrado phytophysiognomies”. What does that mean? Phytophysiognomy it refers to landscape variations, which occur according to regions and characteristics of climate, soil and relief.
The rating|2| most common about these variations points to the following types of phytophysiognomies:
clean fields |
Vegetation composed of grasses, suitable for the movement of animals. |
dirty fields |
Vegetation also known as the thin Cerrado, in which the shrubs are not very expressive. |
thick stricto sensu |
Predominant vegetation in the Cerrado, with a higher incidence of shrub species and tortuous and thick trunks. |
dry forest |
Vegetation away from watercourses, losing its leaves during the dry season. |
Cerradão |
Transition vegetation between the dry forest and the Cerrado stricto sensu. The tree species are large, have many leaves and their branches are crooked. |
woods galleries |
Vegetation that accompanies the watercourses with trees with smooth trunks and small leaves, maintaining their foliage throughout the year. |
paths |
Vegetation of great exuberance, such as floodplain area, located in spring areas of several hydrographic basins. |
rupestrian cerrado |
Vegetation formed in rocky environments, especially in mountain ranges. |
Importance of the Cerrado
The Cerrado, due to its great biodiversity, is ecologically and biologically extremely important. This biome comprises an area that, hundreds of years ago, was inhabited by indigenous populations, like the Karajas and Sherry, who took their livelihood from it through the natural resources of fauna and flora. Their conservation, then, implies also keeping these communities preserved.
Some surveys indicate that approximately 300 native species of the Cerrado have potential economic and medicinal. Many species have already been patented by pharmaceutical industries. According to the Ministry of Environment, species such as barbatimão, pacari and ruffian have medicinal characteristics and can be used in several treatments, for scarring, infections and anemia, for example.
Another major relevance of the biome is the issue of the springs found in it, representing 8% national availability of water. Considered to "Brazil's water tank", the Cerrado comprises the area of several watersheds and also from large aquifers, such as the Guarani.
Cerrado devastation
The Cerrado is currently one of the most threatened of Brazil. In five decades, the biome has reduced about 59% of its original area, according to the Ministry of the Environment. Among the main activities that have degraded this biome, the agricultural activities it's the extractivism.
Read more:Cerrado degradation
The expansion of agribusiness requires deforest areas either to make cultivation viable or to serve as a pasture area for animals. The removal of vegetation cover, in addition to causing changes in the landscape and loss of biodiversity, causes changes in the climate and impacts the soil and water resources. There is favoring the siltation of the basin areas, and there are also risks of contamination of both soil and water, due to the (inappropriate) use of pesticides.
Cerrado map
Cerrado Map (Source: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics — IBGE.)
National Day of the Cerrado
Did you know that the National Day of the Cerrado is celebrated in September 11th? The date was chosen in 2003 through a presidential decree. Choosing a date to commemorate the day of this biome demonstrates its importance for the country. the Cerrado is cradle of large Brazilian hydrographic basins, as well as presenting an enormous biodiversity. However, the biome has suffered from devastation. The National Day of the Cerrado was instituted to promote the preservation of the biome, in order to guarantee the maintenance of the ecological balance.
Grades
|1| PINTO, Miriam Plaza & DINIZ-FILHO, José Alexandre Felizola. Biodiversity in the Cerrado. In: ALMEIDA, Maria Geralda de. So many Cerrados. Goiânia: Vieira, 2005. P. 115-128.
|2| RIBEIRO, J. F.; WALTER, B. M. T. Phytophysiognomies of the Cerrado biome. In: SANO, S. M.; ALMEIDA, S. P. in. Cerrado: environment and flora. Planaltina-DF: EMBRAPA-CPAC, 1998. p.89-116.
