The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...
of
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
in eastern
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, particularly in the states of
Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goi ...
,
Mato Grosso do Sul,
Mato Grosso,
Tocantins
Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 20 ...
,
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...
, and the
Federal District
A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...
. The core areas of the Cerrado
biome
A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...
are the
Brazilian highlands – the ''Planalto''. The main habitat types of the Cerrado consist of forest savanna, wooded savanna, park savanna and
gramineous-woody savanna. The ''Cerrado'' also includes savanna wetlands and
gallery forest
A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...
s. The second largest of Brazil's major habitat types, after the
Amazonian rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
, the Cerrado accounts for a full 21 percent of the country's land area (extending marginally into Paraguay and Bolivia).
The first detailed European account of the Brazilian cerrados was provided by Danish botanist
Eugenius Warming
Eugenius (died 6 September 394) was a usurper in the Western Roman Empire (392–394) against Emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious policies targeting p ...
(1892) in the book
''Lagoa Santa'',
[
: The above is the original. There are other, later French and Portuguese translations not listed here.
] in which he describes the main features of the cerrado vegetation in the state of Minas Gerais.
Since then vast amounts of research have proved that the Cerrado is one of the richest of all tropical savanna regions and has high levels of
endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
. Characterizing it by its enormous ranges of plant and animal biodiversity,
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
named the Cerrado the biologically richest savanna in the world, with about 10,000 plant species and 10 endemic bird species.
[ There are nearly 200 species of mammal in the Cerrado, though only 14 are endemic.][
]
Climate
The Cerrado's climate is typical of the wetter savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
regions of the world, with a semi-humid tropical climate
Tropical climate is the first of the five major climate groups in the Köppen climate classification identified with the letter A. Tropical climates are defined by a monthly average temperature of 18 °C (64.4 °F) or higher in the cool ...
. The Cerrado is limited to two dominant seasons throughout the year: Wet and dry. Annual temperatures for the Cerrado average between 22 and 27 °C and average precipitation between 80–200 cm for over 90% of the area. This ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...
has a very strong dry season during the southern winter (approx. April–September).[
]
Flora
The Cerrado is characterized by unique vegetation types.[ It is composed of a shifting mosaic of habitats, with the savanna-like ''cerrado'' itself on well-drained areas between strips of gallery forest (closed canopy tall forest) which occur along streams.][ Between the ''cerrado'' and the gallery forest is an area of vegetation known as the wet ''campo'' with distinct up- and downslope borders where tree growth is inhibited due to wide seasonal fluctuations in the water table.][
The savanna portion of the Cerrado is heterogeneous in terms of canopy cover. Goodland (1971)][ divided the Cerrado into four categories ranging from least to most canopy cover: ''campo sujo'' (]herbaceous layer
Stratification in the field of ecology refers to the vertical layering of a habitat; the arrangement of vegetation in layers. It classifies the layers (sing. ''stratum'', pl. ''strata'') of vegetation largely according to the different heights to w ...
with occasional small trees about 3 m tall), ''campo cerrado'' (slightly higher density of trees about 4 m tall on average), ''cerrado sensu stricto'' (orchard-like vegetation with trees about 6 m high) and ''cerradão
Cerradão is a type of dry forest found in Brazil, associated with the cerrado savanna ecoregion.
Structure
Cerradão is a drought-resistant ("xerophitic") type of forest, with relatively sparse and slender trees.
It includes species that are fou ...
'' (canopy cover near 50% with general height 9 m).
Probably around 800 species of trees are found in the Cerrado.[ Among the most diverse families of trees in the Cerrado are the Leguminosae (153 spp.), Malpighiaceae (46), Myrtaceae (43), ]Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs, s ...
(32), and Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules a ...
(30). Much of the Cerrado is dominated by the Vochysiaceae (23 species in the Cerrado) due to the abundance of three species in the genus ''Qualea
''Qualea'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Vochysiaceae. These plants occur in the Neotropics and their wood makes good timber and firewood and is used in construction. Some species of ''Qualea'' have medicinal properties.
Species
...
''.[ The herbaceous layer usually reaches about 60 cm in height and is composed mainly of the Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Leguminosae, ]Compositae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...
, Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules a ...
.[ Much of the vegetation in the gallery forests is similar to nearby rainforest; however, there are some endemic species found only in the Cerrado gallery forests.][
Soil fertility, fire regime and hydrology are thought to be most influential in determining Cerrado vegetation. Cerrado soils are always well-drained and most are ]oxisol
Oxisols are a soil order in USDA soil taxonomy, best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest within 25 degrees north and south of the Equator. In the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), they belong mainly to the ferralsols, ...
s with low pH and low calcium and magnesium. The amount of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus has been found to be positively correlated with tree trunk basal area in Cerrado habitats. Much as in other grasslands and savannas, fire is important in maintaining and shaping the Cerrado's landscape; many plants in the Cerrado are fire-adapted, exhibiting characters like thick corky bark to withstand the heat.[
Cerrado vegetation is believed to be ancient, stretching back perhaps as far in a prototypic form as the ]Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
, before Africa and South America separated. A dynamic expansion and contraction between cerrado and Amazonian rainforest has probably occurred historically, with expansion of the Cerrado during glacial periods like the Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
. These processes and the resulting fragmentation in multiple refugia have probably contributed to the high species richness
Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region. Species richness is simply a count of species, and it does not take into account the abundances of the species or their relative ab ...
both of the Cerrado and of the Amazonian rainforest.[
]
Fauna
The Cerrado has a high diversity of vertebrates, with 150 amphibian species, 120 reptile species, 837 bird species, and 161 mammal species recorded. Lizard diversity is generally thought to be relatively low in the Cerrado compared to other areas like ''caatinga
Caatinga (, ) is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" is a Tupi word meaning "white forest" or "white vegetation" (''caa'' = forest, v ...
'' or lowland rainforest although one recent study found 57 species in one cerrado area with the high diversity driven by the availability of open habitat. ''Ameiva ameiva
''Ameiva ameiva'', also known as the giant ameiva, green ameiva, South American ground lizard, or Amazon racerunner, is a species of lizard in the family Teiidae found in Central America, Central, South America, and some Caribbean Islands.
Geogr ...
'' is among the largest lizards found in the Cerrado and is the most important lizard predator where it is found in the Cerrado.[ There is a relatively high diversity of snakes in the Cerrado (22–61 species, depending on site) with Colubridae being the richest family.] The open nature of the ''cerrado'' vegetation most likely contributes to the high diversity of snakes. Information about Cerrado amphibians is extremely limited, although the Cerrado probably has a unique assemblage of species with some endemic to the region.
Most birds found in the Cerrado breed there although there are some Austral migrants (breed in temperate South America and winter in the Amazon basin) and Nearctic migrants (breed in temperate North America and winter in the Neotropics) that pass through. Most breeding birds in the Cerrado are found in more closed canopy areas like gallery forests although 27% of the birds breed only in open habitats and 21% breed in either open or closed habitats.[ Many of the birds in the Cerrado, especially those found in closed forest, are related to species from the Atlantic rainforest and also the Amazon rainforest.] The crowned solitary eagle, hyacinth macaw
The hyacinth macaw (''Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus''), or hyacinthine macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about one meter it is longer tha ...
, toco toucan
The toco toucan (''Ramphastos toco''), also known as the common toucan or giant toucan, is the largest and probably the best known species in the toucan family. It is found in semi-open habitats throughout a large part of central and eastern Sou ...
, buff-necked ibis, dwarf tinamou, and Brazilian merganser
The Brazilian merganser (''Mergus octosetaceus'') is a South American diving duck in the Mergus genus.
It is one of the six most threatened waterfowl in the world, with possibly fewer than 250 birds in the wild and a few kept in captivity in ...
are examples of birds found in the Cerrado.
Gallery forests serve as primary habitat for most of the mammals in the Cerrado, having more water, being protected from fires that sweep the landscape and having a more highly structured habitat. Eleven mammal species are endemic to the Cerrado.[ Notable species include large herbivores like the ]Brazilian tapir
The South American tapir (''Tapirus terrestris''), also commonly called the Brazilian tapir (from the Tupi ''tapi'ira''), the Amazonian tapir, the maned tapir, the lowland tapir, the ''anta'' (Portuguese), and ''la sachavaca'' (literally "bushco ...
and Pampas deer
The Pampas deer (''Ozotoceros bezoarticus'') is a species of deer that live in the grasslands of South America at low elevations.Geist, Valerius. Deer of the world their evolution, behaviour, and ecology'. Mechanicsburg, Pa: Stackpole Books, 1998 ...
and large predators like the maned wolf
The maned wolf (''Chrysocyon brachyurus'') is a large canine of South America. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay, and is almost extinct in Uruguay. Its markings resemble those of foxes, but it is neither a fox nor a w ...
, cougar, jaguar, giant otter
The giant otter or giant river otter (''Pteronura brasiliensis'') is a South American carnivorous mammal. It is the longest member of the weasel family, Mustelidae, a globally successful group of predators, reaching up to . Atypical of muste ...
, ocelot and jaguarundi. Although the diversity is much lower than in the adjacent Amazon and Atlantic Forest, several species of monkeys are present, including black-striped capuchin
The black-striped capuchin (''Sapajus libidinosus''), also known as the bearded capuchin, is a New World monkey in the family Cebidae. They can be found in northern and central Brazil. These capuchins mostly live in dry forests, and savannah lands ...
, black howler monkey
The black howler (''Alouatta caraya'') or black-and-gold howler, is among the largest New World monkeys and a member of the ''Alouatta'' genus. The black howler is distributed in areas of South America such as Paraguay, southern Brazil, eastern ...
and black-tufted marmoset
The black-tufted marmoset (''Callithrix penicillata''), also known as Mico-estrela in Portuguese, is a species of New World monkey that lives primarily in the Neo-tropical gallery forests of the Brazilian Central Plateau. It ranges from Bahia ...
.
The insects of the Cerrado are relatively understudied. A yearlong survey of the Cerrado at one reserve in Brazil found that the orders Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera and Isoptera
Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattod ...
accounted for 89.5% of all captures.[ The Cerrado also supports a high density (up to 4000 per hectare) of the nests of leaf cutter ants (''saúvas''), which are also very diverse.] Along with termites, leaf cutter ants are the primary herbivores of the Cerrado and play an important role in consuming and decomposing organic matter, as well as constituting an important food source to many other animal species. The highest diversity of galling insects (insects that build galls) in the world is also found in the Cerrado, with the most species (46) found at the base of the Serra do Cipó in southeast Brazil.
:
File:Red Brocket (Mazama americana) male (28091090800).jpg,
File:Tamanduá-bandeira no Parque Nacional da Serra da Canastra.jpg,
File:Maned Wolf 6, Beardsley Zoo, 2009-11-06.jpg,
File:Seriema (Cariama cristata).jpg,
History and human population
Taking advantage of the sprouting of the herbaceous stratum that follows a burning in the Cerrado, the aboriginal inhabitants of these regions learned to use the fire as a tool, to increase the fodder to offer to their domesticated animals.
Xavantes
The Xavante (also Shavante, Chavante, Akuen, A'uwe, Akwe, Awen, or Akwen) are an indigenous people, comprising 15,315 individuals within the territory of eastern Mato Grosso state in Brazil. They speak the Xavante language, part of the Jê lang ...
, , Karajás, Avá- Canoeiros, Krahôs, Xerentes, Xacriabás were some of the first indigenous peoples occupying different regions in the Cerrado. Many groups among the indigenous were nomads and explored the Cerrado by hunting and collecting. Others practiced ''coivara'' agriculture, an itinerant type of slash-and-burn agriculture
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...
. The mixing of indigenous, ''quilombola'' maroon communities, extractivists, ''geraizeiros'' (living in the drier regions), riverbank dwellers and ''vazanteiros'' (living on floodplains) shaped a diverse local population that relies heavily on the resources of their environment.
Until the mid-1960s, agricultural activities in the Cerrado were very limited, since natural cerrado soils are not fertile enough for crop production, directed mainly at the extensive production of beef cattle
Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production (as distinguished from dairy cattle, used for milk production). The meat of mature or almost mature cattle is mostly known as beef.
In beef production there are three main stages: cow-calf opera ...
for subsistence of the local market.[ After this period, however, the urban and industrial development of the Southeast Region has forced agriculture to the Central-West Region. The transfer of the country's capital to ]Brasília
Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...
has been another focus of attraction of population to the central region: From 1975 until the beginning of the 1980s, many governmental subsidy programs were launched to promote agriculture, with the intent of stimulating the development of the Cerrado region.[ As a result, there has been a significant increase in agricultural and cattle production.
On the other hand, the urban pressure and the rapid establishment of agricultural activities in the region have been rapidly reducing the biodiversity of the ecosystems, and the population in the Cerrado region more than doubled from 1970–2010, going from 35.8–76 million.
]
Agriculture
The Cerrado was thought challenging for agriculture until researchers at Brazil's agricultural and livestock research agency, Embrapa
The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa - pt, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária) is a state-owned research corporation affiliated with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. Since its inception on April 26, 1973, it ha ...
, discovered that it could be made fit for industrial crops by appropriate additions of phosphorus and lime. In the late 1990s, between 14 million and 16 million tons of lime were being poured on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tons in 2003 and 2004, equaling around five tons of lime per hectare. This manipulation of the soil allowed for industrial agriculture to grow exponentially in the area. Researchers also developed tropical varieties of soybean
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu a ...
s, until then a temperate crop, and currently, Brazil is the world's main soyabeans exporter due to the boom in animal feed production caused by the global rise in meat demand.
Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize, and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of ''eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
'' and ''pines
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family (biology), family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanic ...
'', but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export.
Charcoal production
Charcoal production for Brazil's steel industry comes in second to agriculture in the Cerrado. They actually are quite intertwined. When land is being cleared to make more land for agriculture, the tree's trunks and roots are often used in the production of charcoal, helping to make money for the clearing. The Brazilian steel industry has traditionally always used the trunks and roots from the Cerrado for charcoal but now that the steel mills in the state of Minas Gerais are among the world's largest, it has taken a much higher toll on the Cerrado.[ However, recently because of the conservation efforts and the diminishing vegetation in the Cerrado, they now are receiving some charcoal from the ]eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...
plantations and these efforts are growing.[
]
Rivers
The Cerrado biome is strategic for the water resources of Brazil. The biome contains the headwaters and the largest portion of South American watersheds (the Paraná-Paraguay, Araguaia-Tocantins, and São Francisco river basins) and the upper catchments of large Amazon tributaries, such as the Xingu and Tapajós
The Tapajós ( pt, Rio Tapajós ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. It is one of the largest clearw ...
. During the last four decades, the Cerrado’s river basins have been highly impacted by extreme deforestation, expansion of the agricultural and cattle ranching frontier, construction of dams, and extraction of water for irrigation.
Conservation
The Cerrado is the second largest biome in South America and the most biodiverse savanna in the world. However, it is not currently recognized by the Brazilian Constitution
The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil) is the supreme law of Brazil. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of Brazil and the feder ...
as a National Heritage.[ It is also home to the ]Guarani Aquifer
The Guarani Aquifer, located beneath the surface of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, is the second largest known aquifer system in the world and is an important source of fresh water. Named after the Guarani people, it covers , with a v ...
, stores the largest fresh water underground reservoirs in South America, and supplies water to a third of the Amazon river and the largest basins in the continent.
Brazilian agriculturalists and ministers regard it as having no conservation value, and the government has protected merely 1.5% of the Cerrado biome in Federal Reserves. By 1994, an estimated 695,000 km2 of cerrado (representing 35% of its area) had been converted to 'anthropic iclandscape'. In total, 37.3% of the Cerrado has already been totally converted to human use, while an additional 41.4% is used for pasture and charcoal production. The gallery forests in the region have been among the most heavily affected. It is estimated that only about 432,814 km², or 21.3% of the original vegetation, remains intact today.
During the last 25 years this biome has been increasingly threatened by industrial monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming: both a 1,000-hectare/acre cornfield and a 10-ha/acre field of organic kale are ...
farming, particularly soybeans, the unregulated expansion of industrial agriculture, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation are drawing criticisms and have been identified as potential threats to several Brazilian rivers.
This industrial farming of the Cerrado, with the clearing of land for eucalyptus and soy plantations, has grown so much because of various forms of subsidy, including very generous tax incentives and low interest loans. This has resulted in the establishment of a highly mechanized, capital intensive system of agriculture. There is also a strong agribusiness lobby in Brazil and in particular, the production of soybeans in the Cerrado is influenced by large corporations such as ADM, Cargill and Bunge, these latter two directly associated with the mass deforestation of this biome.
One issue with expanding this reserve is that research needs to be done to choose the location of these reserves because the Cerrado biome is floristically very heterogeneous and constitutes a biological mosaic.[ Teams from the ]University of Brasília
The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...
, CPAC and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...
have been collaborating on this project for a number of years supported by Brazilian, European Community and British funds. The project has recently been expanded into a major Anglo-Brazilian initiative, Conservation and Management of the Biodiversity of the Cerrado Biome, with UK Overseas Development Administration funding. Its aim is to survey the floristic patterns of Cerrado vegetation and to discover representative areas and biodiversity "hot-spots".[
]
Protected areas
A 2017 assessment found that 433,581 km², or 23%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas.[ Protected areas in Brazil include:
* Chapada das Mesas National Park
* ]Emas National Park
The Emas National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional das Emas, literally meaning " Rhea National Park") is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil.
Description
The National Park is locat ...
* Grande Sertão Veredas National Park
* Nascentes do Rio Parnaíba National Park
Nascentes do Rio Parnaíba National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional das Nascentes do Rio Parnaíba) is a national park of Brazil.
Location
The park is in the cerrado biome.
It covers .
It was established on 16 July 2002, and is administered by the Chi ...
* Serra do Cipó National Park
The Serra do Cipó National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional da Serra do Cipó) is a national park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Location
The park is in the Cerrado biome.
It covers .
It was created by decree 90.223 of 25 September 1984, modifi ...
* Nascentes Geraizeiras Sustainable Development Reserve
The Nascentes Geraizeiras Sustainable Development Reserve ( pt, Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Nascentes Geraizeiras is a sustainable development reserve in the Cerrado ecoregion within the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Location
The Nas ...
* Cavernas do Peruaçu Environmental Protection Area
Cavernas do Peruaçu Environmental Protection Area ( pt, Área de Proteção Ambiental Cavernas do Peruaçu) is a protected area in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Location
The Cavernas do Peruaçu Environmental Protection Area, which covers ...
* Iquê Ecological Station
Iquê Ecological Station ( pt, Estação Ecológica do Iquê) is an ecological station in the Juína municipality of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Location
The Ecological Station is in the Cerrado biome.
It was created on 2 June 1981 and is administer ...
* Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station
Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station ( pt, Estação Ecológica Serra Geral do Tocantins) is an ecological station in the states of Bahia and Tocantins, Brazil. It is one of the largest such units in the country, and protects a sparsely pop ...
* Jalapão State Park
* Serra de Santa Bárbara State Park
The Serra de Santa Bárbara State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual Serra de Santa Bárbara) is a state park in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
It preserves a unique environment where the Amazon rainforest, pantanal and cerrado meet, and holds many end ...
* Pireneus State Park
* Terra Ronca State Park
as well as
: Noel Kempff Mercado National Park
in Bolivia.
References
*
* BRANDÃO, M.; GAVILANES, M. L. (1992). ''Espécies árboreas padronizadoras do Cerrado mineiro e sua distribuição no Estado.'
Informe Agropecuário
16 (173): 5–11.
* BRANDÃO, M.; CARVALHO, P. G. S.; JESUÉ, G. (1992). ''Guia Ilustrado de Plantas do Cerrado.''
CEMIG
* CASTRO, A. A. J. F., MARTINS F. R., TAMASHIRO, J. Y., SHEPHERD G. J. (1999). ''How rich is the flora of Brazilian Cerrados?'
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
86 (1): 192–224.
*
* RATTER, J.A.; RIBEIRO, J.F. & BRIDGEWATER, S. (1997) ''The Brazilian Cerrado vegetation and Threats to its Biodiversity.'
Annals of Botany
80: pp. 223–230.
* LEITÃO FILHO, H.F. (1992). ''A flora arbórea dos Cerrados do Estado de São Paulo''
19 (1/2): 151–163.
* MENDONÇA, R. C.; FELFILI, J. M.; WALTER, B. M. T.; SILVA, M. C.; REZENDE, FILGUEIRAS, T. S.; NOGUEIRA, P. E. ''Flora vascular do bioma Cerrado''. ("Vascular flora of Cerrado biome") tp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/documentos/recursosnaturais/levantamento/floravascular.pdf IBGE*
** Volume 1
** Volume 2
Further reading
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External links
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{{States_of_Brazil
01
Ecoregions of Brazil
Ecoregions of Bolivia
Ecoregions of Paraguay
Ecoregions of South America
Grasslands of Brazil
Grasslands of Bolivia
Grasslands of Paraguay
Natural regions of South America
Biosphere reserves of Brazil
Environment of Goiás
Environment of Mato Grosso
Environment of Mato Grosso do Sul
Environment of Minas Gerais
Environment of Tocantins
Regions of Brazil
Regions of Bolivia
Regions of Paraguay
Regions of South America
Neotropical ecoregions
Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands