Brazilian Cerrado Research Paper

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At a size of 2 million km², the Brazilian Cerrado constitutes the country’s second-largest biome, after the Amazonian rainforest[10, 16, 20]. It’s savannah-like ecosystem covers approx. 22% of Brazil’s surface, spanning 11 states and the country’s capital, Brasília[20]. Although altitudes in the Cerrado vary between 100 and 1,500 metres[18], the area’s profile is relatively flat, with slopes mostly below 5°[10] . Its large longitudinal and latitudinal extent causes great climatic diversity[18]. Like in most tropical savannah regions, the Cerrado’s climate is subject to a strong seasonality[10], showing a wet season from October to April, accounting for approx. 80% of the annual rainfall, and a dry season from May to September[4].
The Cerrado shows a wide range of soil types[8, 18], with latosol and plinthosol being predominant. The climatic environment and the acidic, well-drained soils[7, 18], as well as transitions to the …show more content…
This development was caused by a notion of abundant land free for human use, as well as government subsidies that were used to create a favourable environment for agricultural investments in the Cerrado[14]. Projections of future land-use change show that this trend is likely to continue[16, 26], threatening the Cerrado’s unique ecosystem with its unmatched biodiversity[13, 19, 26]. Since the Cerrado ecosystem is expected to suffer increasing land conversion stress due to the availability of agricultural suitable land and a global market situation favourable for agricultural expansion and increased production[1, 6, 9, 19], increased conservation efforts are considered vital for preventing ecosystem degradation and extinction of endemic species[2, 3, 5, 11, 13, 21, 22,
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