Savannah
(Cerrado)
The savannah is located in the areas
of the central plateau, prevailing in Mato Grosso
and Goiás, also happening in Bahia, in Minas
Gerais and São Paulo. It occupies around 20% of
the national territory.
The climate is diversified, however
the tropical climate prevails with two season
very well defined, one dry and the other humid.
Its soil is sandy, but it is being used with some
success in agriculture, mainly of legumes such as
soy in association with corn. The area
possesses underground sheets of water that are
not very deep. This facilitates the
extraction of water through artesian wells, which
are used in irrigation.
The vegetation of
the savannah characteristically possesses trees
of medium height (3 to 6m) with twisted logs and
branches, groos peel, coriaceous leaves, and deep
roots (reaching at times the sheet of water). In
agreement with the spacing between the trees and
the height of these, divisions appear as
cerradão ("high savannah", formation
that more resembles a forest), and cerradinho
(similar to a field with some bush).
Several answers exist for the trees
twisted characteristic; for example, the lack of
nutritious soil. But one of the best explanations
is the burns of the growth zone. Plants have a
main growth zone and secondary zones, that are
inactive and only work when the main zone stops
existing. With the periodic
burns that happen in the savannah, the main
growth zone would be burned and the secondary
zones would be activated and, begin growing in
another direction. The explanation of fire makes
sense, when it is analyzed that some seeds
only germinate after they have been burned.
This can be considered a protection
against fire; or when we analyzed the
extremely gross peel, another protection against
fire.
In the savannah they
exit many interesting fauna including the Giant
Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), the
maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), the Giant
armadillo (Priodontes maximus) and others. The
vegetation with its adaptations is also extremely
attractive.
One of the savannah and Pantanal
advantages is a less dense forest character that
makes it easier to see animals more easily than
in other locales of dense forest such as the
Atlantic forest

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