Cerrado | Biomas do Brasil | Ep.9

Guys, this is a tapir, the largest terrestrial mammal of Brazil. It can weight - oops! up to 550 pounds, it's a herbivore animal that loves fruits.

That's exactly why - take it sweetheart - that's exactly why it's so important to spread the seeds of various plants throughout this biome we will study today, which is the home of this gorgeous animal. So put some blood in that eye, because today there's Cerrado for you. ♪ In order to shoot the videos about the Cerrado, I traveled about 1.

022 miles, from Florianopolis in Santa Catarina state, until the National Park of Rheas, located in the city of Mineiros, Goias state. The Cerrado is a savanna, but it's not any savanna. This is the savanna with the biggest biodiversity on the planet, harboring almost 160 thousand species - there are more living beings here than in the African savanna.

<i>- "Ah but <i>Jubijubao</i>, what's a savanna? "</i> Savanna is this environment you see here, characterized by underbrush, a herbaceous vegetation, formed by grasses, then you have these shrubs or more spaced trees, so you see a bush here, a little more space and you see another one over there, there's another one over there, this is what characterizes the picture of a savanna. An interesting detail is that I alread had the opportunity to be in the African savanna and the landscape is quite similar to this Cerrado landscape, but there's a detail: the vegetation found here, the species of plants found in the Brazilian Cerrado, are not the same species of plants that live in the African Savanna.

Nor even the animals - there are no jaguars there and you don't see any giraffe feeding off tree leaves here. <i>- "But Jubijubao, why are you comparing the Cerrado</i> <i>with the African savanna? "</i> You devil, I already told you that Cerrado is also regarded as a savanna ok, don't forget that!

The Cerrado biome once occupied 25% of the Brazilian territory, that equals 6 countries the size of Italy - that's a lot! When it comes to extension, the Cerrado biome is second only to the Amazon Forest, which together with the Atlantic Forest - so the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest are the only two biomes that have a bigger biodiversity than the Cerrado. ♫ This biome is typical of the Brazilian central plateau and it spreads throughout 14 states, so you can find Cerrado in Goias, Mato Grosso, South Mato Grosso, Piaui, Tocantins, even in Sao Paulo you are able to find a typical Cerrado vegetation, in other words, although many people think that Cerrado is only typical to Brazil's midwest region, that's not true, you are able to find it in other parts besides this region.

♫ When we talk about climate, we have mostly a tropical climate here on Cerrado, with two well defined seasons, a rainy season, which is the summer that goes from September to April, sort of, then we have a drought season, which is supposed to be the winter that goes from June until August. Cerrado's average temperature stays around 23 degree Celsius and the rainfall index, I mean, the amount of rain in one year, stays around 1300 millimeters. An interesting detail is that right now I'm in a transitional period - transition from the rainy season to the drought season, that's why you still see all these greeny grasses.

♪ The Cerrado soil is heavily poor in mineral nutrients and in order for the plants to survive here in this biome, they must be truly survivors. One of the main reasons that makes this soil very poor, is that it's heavily spongy, which means that when it rains, the rain water quickly penetrates and goes to the deep, as far as the soil sediments are not so tied up, they aren't able to hold this water here on the surface. So when it quickly penetrates deep down the soil - and I'm talking about 65, 100 feet deep - it ends up carrying the nutrients that were here.

Case in point, this bush behind me, look how small it is, that's a characteristic of Cerrado plants. They are small exactly because of the lack of nutrients we have here. There's not a lot of nitrogen here, there's not much calcium and not much phosphor either - bear in mind that in order for a living being to build DNA, to build protein, it needs phosphor, it needs nitrogen, so without these elements in the soil, there's no way of having a big size - another issue that also causes Cerrado plants to have a low stature, is the lack of zinc on the ground, that's because the plant needs to produce a hormone in order to stimulate its stalk's growth, which is known as indoleacetic acid, without zinc it's not able to produce a satisfactory amount of this hormone hence it can't stimulate the proper growth of its stalk.

If on the one hand the Cerrado soil is too poor in mineral nutrients, on the other hand it's too rich in aluminum, but that's also a problem, as long as the excess of aluminum is toxic to living beings, including plants, which need to have a series of adaptations in order to survive the excess of this element here in the soil. One of these adaptations is that some plants of this biome, are able to reserve a portion of their leaves to store this aluminum so they manage to isolate it from the rest of the vegetable. Besides, the excess of aluminum in the soil explains the peculiar shape of these bushes and trees of the Cerrado Notice how bent they are - that's what we call "tortuous shape" - and that's because of this excess of aluminum we have in the soil here.

♪ As long as there's nothing so bad that it couldn't be worse, the Cerrado soil is too acidic and that's not good for the plants. As far as the soil acidity ends up causing a chemical-physical imbalance that makes it harder for the absorption of nutrients by the roots of these plants, so think about it, the plant is already suffering there, trying to reach out for a few nutrients you have here, then you put acidity in the soil, in other words, it's gonna be harder. Plus, parts of the Cerrado are also very rich in iron and sometimes the iron ends up building up some blocks that prevent an effective penetration of plants roots in this soil.

Regarding nutrients, something that strengthens Cerrado plants, is organic matter placed on the soil surface. It's formed by decays of leaves and dead animals that were decomposed by fungi and bacteria and turned into nutrients, to be absorbed by plants. A strategy utilized by Cerrado plants to be able to retrieve a few more nutrients from the soil, is associating their roots to fungi and build structures we call mycorrhiza.

The fungi increase the roots' contact surface with the soil, allowing for a big amount of nutrients. The roots in turn, end up giving these fungi, sugar from photosynthesis, so this is a very intimate relation between fungi and roots, which will benefit both living beings, both the plants that are able to collect more nutrients, and the fungi that get a little more sugar. ♪ Cerrado plants are truly survivors, that's because besides having to be prepared for a soil poor in nutrients, rich in aluminum, they also have to be prepared for the arrival of wildfires and that usually happens by the end of the drought season and beginning of the rainy season, because the green grasses seen here, will be dried up, dead on the ground and they are true fuel to start a wildfire like the one that burned this whole tree.

That's because we have great lightning storms at the beginning of the rainy season here on Cerrado. Those lightning bolts start a wildfire by hitting the dry grasses and it quickly spreads throughout the whole biome. A lovely adaptation to protect against the fire, is to keep portions of the plant covered beneath the soil surface.

In fact, it's often said that the Cerrado is an underground biome. Many people say that the Cerrado is an upside down forest - actually the largest portion of this vegetal biomass, is underground, and this aerial section you see here is minimal, almost everything else is buried. That's quite a smart strategy of these plants, in a place with a wildfire presence, as far as the outside temperature during a wildfire can reach up to 800 degree Celsius, but the temperature is whimsy 10 inches beneath the ground at the same moment, so protecting your vital parts beneath the soil is a really smart move - case in point, these plants here, which are known as <i>"cajuzinho"</i>, as well as other Cerrado plants, they have an underground structure known as xylopodium.

The xylopodium can originate both on the stalk and on the root, in other words, it can be either root or stalk, and it's able to make a new plant germinate, and it only activates under high fire temperature, so as the fire passes through here it will destroy the aerial portion of the <i>cajuzinho</i> but the xylopodium beneath the ground, will quickly germinate a new plant here. ♫ Here there's a nice example of how most Cerrado plants enjoy keeping their structures beneath the ground. This is a palm tree!

<i>- "Gee Jubijubão, a palm tree</i> <i>like a coconut palm? "</i> This, like coconut palm! <i>- "Where's the stalk?

"</i> It's underneath the soil, in other words, if the fire passes through here, it will destroy only these leaves and right after this fire is gone, the stalk protected beneath the ground, will germinate these leaves once again. ♪ A rather interesting detail after a wildfire is that the reproduction of angiosperms increases, so the Cerrado starts to look like a flowery garden - you know, flowers are reproductive organs of angiosperm plants. The emergent flowers in turn, end up attracting insects that seek nectar produced by them, which is a sweet substance, so these insects end up attracting other animals that attract other animals, in other words, these flowers are quite important to recolonize an area that was destroyed by wildfire.

♫ Here we have an example of a tree trunk that suffered with a wildfire recently, notice how the stalk suberin is totally burned, turned to charcoal, but turns out it ended up protecting more internal parts of this plant, which are precisely the parts where we find living tissues that weren't damaged, hence it remains gorgeous and wonderful here on Cerrado. The very ashes that stay on the ground after a wildfire, are quite important for the rebirth of the Cerrado. That's because the ashes are vegetal remains that contain a lot of nutrients that are reabsorbed by the roots of the surviving plants - these plants will utilize these nutrients to build their new vegetal parts and continue their life cycle.

Check out another interesting example here: we have the stalk of this bush, which was entirely burned by wildfire, and now you already have new parts of this stalk germinating, so here you have lateral gems that were protected from the fire - they are well protected, that's an adaptation of Cerrado plants - later on, these lateral gems will start to originate new parts, including this growing branch, it even has leaves that are doing photosynthesis, doing the maintenance of this bush life cycle. Notice that what happens on Cerrado, after a wildfire, is a secondary succession - you do remember that successional process - you got the primary succession, secondary, climax community - in this case, the secundary succession means a community that grows again in an area that went through a disturbance, a wildfire in this case. And this place really went through a wildfire recently, so you have a burnt bush here, another burnt bush here, notice how we already have sprouts emerging from these bushes, the grasses are already growing because most seeds of Cerrado plants need the action of fire to be able to germinate, so after the fire is gone, you have the activation of these seeds, so the vegetation grows again and builds up the Cerrado once more.

<i>- "But Jubijubao, is a wildfire good for the Cerrado? "</i> As long as Cerrado wildfires are not frequent, as long as they are either natural or controlled by men, they are quite beneficial for the biome, because the vegetal species wait for it, but the great problem is when this fire happens frequently, which is currently happening because livestock producers set fire to their pastures too many times, in order to renew it for the cattle, or set fire to an area in order to plant soy, or corn, anything and many times they end up losing control over the fire that ends up spreading and hitting the Cerrado biome. This is a problem because if the fire starts to frequently act in a region, it ends up dehydrating and compacting the soil, the plants have no time to develop, therefore the animals have no time to recolonize this region either - you know how animals are important when it comes to plants reproduction - so you end up having an uncontrolled situation that prevents development from returning to this region, in case you keep setting fire here the whole time, until it eventually collapses and this ends up turning into a huge desert.

As the plants, Cerrado animals also have strategies to be able to survive natural wildfires that occur in this biome. So they can hide in termite mounds, they can build lairs and those that aren't able to do that, end up running away. The problem is that we have even less areas of Cerrado and these are usually fenced in areas, such as the one you see here.

So if the fence is not like this one, which contains a space that allows the animal to escape, it ends up stuck and dies of fire burns. ♫ Cerrado does have a huge diversity of plants, about 10 thousand catalogued species that are distributed among the herbaceous vegetation, which is this lower vegetation, the arbustive vegetation, which are these tiny trees and the arboreous vegetation as well, which are those bigger trees. This biome's vegetation is classified as tropophile, because all these plants have to be adapted to a high variation of moisture, as long as you have a rainy season with a lot of moisture here on Cerrado, and a drought season that lacks moisture.

Whenever we walk through the Cerrado biome, the landscape we usually find is this one here, formed by this green carpet built by herbaceous plants, mainly grasses, followed by these bent and short shrubs reaching up to 6 foot, having very thick barks, so we could say that the Cerrado vegetation usually presents two layers, two vegetal layers - the first layer is herbaceous vegetation, the second layer is arbustive vegetation spread throughout this green carpet here. As you already know, we have a drought period on Cerrado, so the plants also need to have adaptations to avoid dehydration - check this out how interesting: Many leaves that form Cerrado plants are rigid and have a very shiny surface, that's because they have a very thick wax layer, they have a very thick cuticle and that's a protection to avoid the dehydration of these leaves that are here. They also have a trichome layer on their surface, these trichomes are a type of fluff that works like a lightning rod, preventing the sun's radiation from directly hitting the leaf surface, a nice protection against water loss as well, specially during the drought season.

Regarding the roots of local plants, we also have quite interesting adaptations - such as herbaceous plants that have superficial roots that form a true mesh on the soil surface, a type of net, of sponge that's able to retain a little rainwater before it goes deep down the soil. Regarding bushes and trees of the Cerrado, they have deep roots - a tiny plant like this one, can have 50, 65 feet deep roots. Why is that?

Because we have the water table down there, and all that rainwater that came down and infiltrated the soil, it stops down there, so there's a true water tank in the deeper soil of the Cerrado, which is where these plants get water from, with their deep roots. In fact, during the drought season the grasses, the herbaceous vegetation ends up dying because they can't get a water supply during this season, but the bushes and trees usually won't loose their green leaves because they get water the whole time, even during the drought season, which comes from the water table located deep down this soil. ♪ An example of a species that builds deep roots is the <i>pequizeiro</i>, one of the most famous plants of the Brazilian Cerrado.

That's because it produces highly appreciated fruits, largely utilized in the local cuisine, specially in the midwest region. These fruits are also very appreciated by the animals that live in this biome, such as the <i>guara</i> wolf. As they feed, these animals end up helping the <i>pequizeiro</i> to spread its seeds across the land.

And that's not all, as long as they have deep roots, it still gets water from the deep soil during the drought season and of course it ends up creating a moist microclimate around it, with lower temperatures, something that's quite appreciated by several animals that enjoy being around this plant during the drought season, because it works like some sort of air conditioning unit of the Cerrado. I just found another cute <i>pequizeiro</i> for you, cutter than the other one I was utilizing as example and I'd like to say another thing: Regarding the importance of Cerrado species that have deep roots, because although these roots retrieve water from water tables, they also help protecting these very same water tables, which means that, the less species similar to the <i>pequizeiro</i>, we have in this region, the less protection of water tables, therefore less amount of water inside Brazilian homes, as long as these water tables help supplying various rivers of the region, including the ones distributed throughout the whole country. The less water stored in these Cerrado water tables you have, the less water available for you to drink.

A rather interesting strategy made by some Cerrado plants, is to florish at the end of the drought period, when the food supply is too low, which increases the odds of pollinator agents, such as insects, to come along after the nectar - the honeypot - therefore helping the reproduction of this plant. By the way, I'll be talking about Cerrado animals on the next video, all in all, needless to say that it was a treat to be here with you, a big hug, bye! !

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