Fire in the Ecology of the Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract

In the broad sense, the cerrado may be considered part of a large ecocline, occurring in Brazil under a single, tropical, seasonal climate (climate zone II of Walter 1970) and determined primarily by gradients of soil fertility and the incidence of fire. In fact, the cerrado represents the final portion of the transition from eutrophic tropical seasonal forest to a pedo- and peinobiome of tropical moist savanna and grassland (Fig. 1).