Cerrado (Brazil)

Location of the Cerrado ecoregion . NASA satellite image , borders of the ecoregion according to information from WWF , state borders in black.

Cerrado at Pirenópolis ( Goiás )

Nandu (Rhea americana)

Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus)

Tapir (Tapirus terrestris)

Bald monkey

As cerrado , Cerrado or Campos cerrados is called the savannas domestically Southeast of Brazil , which in the west to the border of Bolivia and south to Paraguay rich. With an area of two million square kilometers, they cover an area the size of Alaska. The states of Goiás , Mato Grosso , Mato Grosso do Sul, and Minas Gerais are covered by Cerrados, as are parts of Maranhão , Paraná , Piauí, and São Paulo .

climate

The Cerrados have a semi-arid climate with two distinct seasons. During the rainy season from October to April (summer) a large part of the annual rainfall falls between 1100 and 2000 mm. The dry season is from May to September. The mean annual temperature is between 20 ° C and 26 ° C. The Cerrado area is one of the most important water resources in South America.

ground

The soils of the Campos cerrados were created by weathering from the granites and sandstones of the Brazilian shield . These soils are very old and deep, but their nutrients have long been washed out. Above all, the main nutrients phosphorus and potassium as well as the trace elements zinc and boron are missing . The lack of nutrients is held responsible for the fact that the area of the Cerrados is not covered by forest, but by savannah.

Like many other agriculturally usable soils on earth, the soils are so acidic that Al ³⁺ ions are released in concentrations that can only be tolerated by adapted plants.

Vegetation and wildlife

The trees in the Cerrados reach a height of 4 to 9 m, they cover between 3% and 30% of the area. During the dry season, the soil remains moist from a depth of 2 m. The roots of the trees therefore always reach water, they stay green all year round and do not have to restrict their transpiration . Grasses and shallow-rooted plants dry up during the dry season.

The development of the cerrado vegetation is characterized by irregular forest and bush fires . The fires are naturally started by lightning, but the man-made fires are becoming more common. Characteristic of the Cerrado plants are thick, corky bark and underground organs that are used for regeneration after fires. Too frequent fires lead to a change in the composition of the vegetation; the number of trees generally decreases because they do not have enough time to recover after a fire.

The biodiversity of the cerrados is very high: there are around 10,000 different species of vascular plants , half of them are endemic . The wildlife includes around 200 species of mammals , 840 species of birds , 180 species of reptiles and 110 species of amphibians . The Cerrado include the home of the Great Nandu ( Rhea americana ). The most famous representatives of the cerrado fauna are the maned wolf and the tapir . They feed mainly on fruits, like the common marmosets of the genus Callithrix . This biodiversity is threatened by the expansion of agriculture.

Usage and threat

The Cerrado region has only been used for agriculture on a large scale for about 50 years. Traditionally, this was extensive pasture use. Since the 1980–90s, agricultural uses have increasingly been carried out on former pastures and today the natural vegetation is converted directly into arable land. There is clearing for eucalyptus and soy plantations . To cultivate crops, the nutrient deficiency in the soil must be compensated for by fertilization . A prerequisite for the availability of nutrients, however, is an increase in the soil pH value, which is achieved through enormous amounts of lime (dolomite).

Soybeans , corn , sugar cane and rice are grown on large plantations . A recent development in the use of cerrados is the expansion of sugar cane plantations for the production of bioethanol , among other things at the expense of food production. Livestock is also practiced.

The capital Brasília is located in the Cerrados, so the area is well served by highways. Since the landscape is easily accessible, it is used very intensively. In the meantime, two thirds of the Cerrado areas have been heavily modified by human influence. With the expansion of the areas used for agriculture and animal husbandry, more and more of the natural flora and fauna is being lost. The more frequent fires and the introduction of fertilizers also disrupt the ecosystem. To date, half of the biodiversity hotspot has fallen victim to the agricultural industry.

Only one percent of the total area is under nature protection. One of the most important national parks within the Cerrado region is the Emas National Park . In order to preserve the cerrado, large areas of the region as a whole should be included in protection, especially dry forests, swamps and the gallery forests along the rivers. The mammals, birds and insects that live there penetrate the cerrado and take on the role of pollinators, fruit and seed dispersers.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c WWF: Central South America: Central Brazil, into Bolivia and Paraguay , accessed on June 22, 2015 (English).

↑ ^a ^b Heinrich Walter , Siegmar-W. Breckle: vegetation and climates. 7th edition. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1999, p. 204, ISBN 3-8252-0014-0

↑ Geraldo MA Cançado, Newton Portilho Carneiro, Andréa Almeida Carneiro, Antônio Álvaro Corsetti Purcino, Claudia Teixeira Guimaraes, Vera Maria Carvalho Alves, Sidney net Parentoni, Isabel Regina Prazeres de Souza, Edilson Paiva: Novas perspectivas para adaptação de Culturas ao Cerrado ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) , Biotecnologia Ciência & Desenvolvimento, No. 23, November / December 2001, pp. 56-61.