Pampa | Biomas do Brasil | Ep.3

Many people think that bees are only useful to produce honey, which is a mistake. Actually, bees are one of the biggest pollinator agents of our planet. They help thousands of species of plants to reproduce.

Including plants that are food for you. Unfortunately these are endangered animals, thanks to the use of pesticides, like the ones utilized in soy farms such as the one right behind me. Besides, soy crops not only threaten the existence of bees, but also threaten the existence of the biome we will study today.

So put some blood in that eye because today there's the <i>Pampa</i> biome for you. I traveled 600 miles in order to film this video lesson, leaving <i>Florianopolis</i> towards the southwest of <i>Rio Grande do Sul</i>, to the lovely county of <i>Alegrete</i>. Where's located one of the few areas of preservation of this biome.

The <i>Ibirapuita</i> biological reservation. Brazil's southern fields are known as <i>"Pampa"</i>, which means "flat land", but we can also call it "southern fields" ou even prairies. This is regarded as one of the most important areas with temperate fields on the planet.

And that's not too shabby, as long as 25% of the globe is made of landscapes such as this one. The <i>Pampa</i> is restricted to the state of <i>Rio Grande do Sul</i>, where it occupies an area of nearly 73 thousand square miles. That's 63% of the state territory and 2% of the Brazilian territory.

It still stretches to Uruguay and Argentine as well. The <i>Pampa</i> has a subtropical climate and the rainfall index stays around 1200 and 1600 mm of rain per year. In other words, it's a place that rains a lot.

Of course, it doesn't rain as much as in the tropical rainforest, but it still rains more than in the desert, and this rain is well distributed here during the whole year. What we call Rainfall Constancy. Regarding the average temperature, it stays around 18 degrees Celsius.

What that means? We have both a moist and cold climate. Summer is relatively hot, and the temperature can reach 35 degrees Celsius.

And the winter of course, very low temperatures, cold, plus these temperatures can reach minus five degrees. Now is time to talk about the edaphic characteristics of the <i>Pampa</i>. <i>"- Whoa Jubijubao, eda-what?

"</i> "Edaphic", whenever you see this word be sure that this text will be addressing the soil. Edaphic is soil, edaphic characteristics, soil characteristics. Why is so important to know about the characteristics of a biome's soil?

Because besides the climate, it's responsible for the development of vegetal species. Sometimes the soil is more important, sometimes the climate is more important. Depends on the biome!

In this case here in the <i>Pampa</i>, the soil is shallow, in other words, if I start to dig here, I quickly reach the rocks. Other thing, if I dig the soil here - I'm gonna dig it - you can see how the soil is dark, in other words, it has plenty of organic matter. There's plenty of nutrient here, which will support the vegetal species that exist here.

Specially species of grasses. These grasses are food for herbivorous animals, such as the cattle - there's a reason why this southern region of the country is utilized for livestock. Why?

Because it develops natural food for the cattle. <i>"- Gee Jubijubao, are you in the desert now? "</i> No, I'm still in the <i>Pampa</i>, actually this formation you see here, that has plenty of sand banks, is a natural process that occurs in this biome, a process known as sandstone - not desertification.

Desert formations happen in areas with dry climate, and here there's a moist climate, it rains in this region. <i>"- Gee, so how that happens? "</i> Actually there are two reasons: the first one is the type of soil, we have an arenaceous soil here in the <i>Pampa</i>.

What that means? The sediments of this type of soil are not so tied up. They easily break apart.

Then, as crazy as it seems, we have the action of this fella here - come with me! ! Water, the water that passes through - rain water, river water - it comes through, carrying these sediments of the soil.

Later on, the wind blows here and spread these sediments, forming this whole structure here. ♪ One of the things I like the most in my travels, is to observe the adaptations of plants to survive a certain biome. And look what I just found: I found this pitanga tree and check this out, it's in the middle of the sand, a place that holds little water, a very inhospitable place to survive.

What's the strategy it's utilizing to survive here? It even has the fruits. Simple, it buries its stalk in the ground.

I started to dig here and I have a moist dirt, so the roots of this plant stay deep and are able to have water. ♪ When we talk about <i>Pampa</i> vegetation, people usually think about a poor scenery, with low biodiversity, due to the aspect of this biome's vegetation, a more rural aspect. But the biodiversity here is not too low, there are few spaces, for instance, if I pick a space of one square meter, I'm able to find up to 56 different species of organisms.

A number close to the Atlantic Forest. Of course, the biodiversity here is not quite like the biodiversity of a tropical forest, but it still a very considerable biodiversity. Only within this space I am, there's one, two, tree, four, five, six, seven, eight species of plants.

At first glance I already found eight different species of plants. So yes, there is biodiversity here. Of 3 thousand known species of plants here in the <i>Pampa</i>, 450 are grasses, such as the fork grass, the carpet grass, flexilha grass, goat-beard, and pork-hair.

These grasses have a high rate of photosynthesis, in other words they take plenty of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, contributing to the maintenance of our planet's climate Grasses are herbaceous plants, in other words, they have small size and can reach up to 3 feet. They are the dominant plants of the <i>Pampa</i> landscape and form this rural vegetation. However, we will find spots of shrubs, which are medium size plants that can reach a couple dozen feet.

♫ A detail that caught my attention is that various species of grasses that exist here, have sprouts on their roots which are responsible for the formation of new plants - these sprouts stay beneath the soil, protected from the high temperatures of fire. <i>"- What you mean, fire? "</i> This tipe of adaptation of these grasses gives me the clue on how the <i>Pampa</i> is affected by wildfires for thousands of years.

So very likely, before men arrived here and started setting fire all over the place, we had the action of lightning storms that also set this region on fire. Of course, these wildfires favor species like this, which have this type of adaptation, in other words, they have sprouts that will form new plants as soon as the fire extinguishes. Many species of trees don't have these adaptations, that's why we probably have so many grasses here in the <i>Pampa</i> and not so many trees.

Something quite interesting I should tell you, is that grasses are adapted to be food for herbivorous animals, such as cows, sheep, and some herbivorous animals that also exist here in the <i>Pampa</i>, it's ready for it, so bringing the cattle here is not so bad because you have a vegetation ready to be food. The problem is bringing 50 million cows to stay in the same region - that's what causes impact. Other thing I'm also observing the presence of leguminous plants here, which are highly nutritious for herbivorous animals because they have more nitrogen, they make associations with bacteria in their roots and are able to have more protein, because they have more nitrogen, they are much more nutritious, in other words, indeed this herbaceous vegetation here I have a feast to any herbivorous animal.

What's awesome is that right now I'm in the biological reservation of <i>Ibirapuita</i>, which means "red wood". It's a place where men and livestock are forbidden - except of course, Jubilut here, through many authorizations. When you have the <i>Pampa</i> biome without human intervention, you start to frequently observe the formation of an arboreous vegetation, in other words, 30 feet tall, 50 feet tall trees, like the one you see behind me.

It's hard to find a forest formation area in the <i>Pampa</i>, far from the rivers - you will find riparian forests by the rivers, but if you move away you won't find this type of vegetation and we can even bring up a "philosophy of life" here, because some researchers say the <i>Pampa</i> only has a rural aspect due to the human action. If men didn't exist, very likely the <i>Pampa</i> would look like that. So you may think: men arrived in southern Brazil around 12 thousand years ago, they got here, started to set fire everywhere, in order to hunt the megafauna that existed here.

In the 16th century we have the arrival of the European immigrant, also setting fire everywhere, bringing livestock, developing agriculture, in other words, this biome never had the opportunity to express all its potential. And when you are in a place so rare and hard to get inside such as this place I am right now, you are able to see that this has a reason, because I'm seeing various forest areas and is even harder to find a type of rural vegetation. Now, whether this biome is natural or not, the most important is that is extremely necessary to support the animals of this region.

Herbivorous animals that feed off their plants and carnivour animals that feed off these herbivorous. Animals that are seriously endangered due to accelerated destruction of this biome. But that's going to be the subject of our next video, all in all, needless to say that was a treat to be here with you, a big hug, bye!

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