Welcome to Cerrado

The Brazilian Savanna, also known as "Cerrado", is an extensive ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, covering 25% of national land (2 mi km ² )

This biome is also considered as the largest savanna region in South America

Large mammals as the marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus), maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), jaguar (Panthera onca), and giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) are living among the arid grasslands and shrubbery plants of Cerrado

This biome is also home of many birds species, as red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata), and the critically endangered Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii)

During the last 25 years this biome has been increasingly threatened by agriculture expansion and monoculture farming, particularly soy production, cattle ranching, and the burning of vegetation for charcoal, continue to pose a major threat to the Cerrado's biodiversity

One of the largest Protected Areas in the Brazilian savanna is the  Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park . This park has 2,405 km ²  and it was established as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it represents one of the world's oldest and most diverse tropical ecosystems

The vegetation in the Chapada dos Vedeiros National Park can range from waterlogged grassland physiognomies (campo limpo úmido) to seasonally deciduous forest (mata seca) and xeromorphic woodland (cerradão) physiognomies inside a small section of the landscape

The distribution and coexistence of these vegetation types is broadly driven by changes in soil nutrients, water availability, geomorphology, and vegetation-fire dynamics

The Cerrado heterogeneity is very important and can provide many ecosystem services. However, we still lack a lot of information about species composition and their roles in ecosystem dynamics

Termites have been pointed out as essential organisms for ecosystem dynamics in many different places, such as tropical forests, savannas, and temperate forests worldwide.

They can feed on different sources, such as wood, leaves, grass, litter, fungi, and detritus, helping organic matter to get back into the soil

The interaction of termites with organic and dead materials is very important for nutrient cycling, especially in dry and hot ecosystems, where the conditions are challenging for decomposing organisms, such as microbes and fungi, to survive

In such areas, termites are key in decomposing roots, wood, leaves, and litter, thus releasing nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and carbon. During this process, termites also release carbon through carbon dioxide (CO ² ) and methane (CH ⁴ ) gases due to the activity of bacteria and microbial symbionts living in their guts, thus helping in the carbon cycle. Their relationship is based on feeding each other since termites have difficulty digesting some vegetation tissues. The gases resulting from this interaction comprise greenhouse gases and are very important in keeping the temperature and living on earth

Some people might think termites are bad for releasing gases such as carbon into the atmosphere, thus increasing their concentrations. However, they just release the already available carbon, so they are likely keeping that natural process instead boosting carbon emissions

These nutrients stay available for other organisms to use, such as plants. In fact, some researchers have found that termite structures (like mounds and earthmounds) might work as islands or hotspots of nutrients, helping plants easily access them.

The accessibility of these nutrients allows plants to grow and survive, thus breathing and taking back the carbon released through termites and their symbionts' respiration, mitigating their natural impacts (and probably the anthropogenic ones) on the environment

Most places in the world still lack some information about termites, which makes it difficult to predict how important they might be locally and regionally. Even basic information, such as how many species they comprise and where they live, is missing. Especially in those places where they are expected to be very abundant, such as in Africa and Brazilian savannas

This information is important if we want to understand their importance, the consequences of their loss, and whether there is any threat to them. However, we are just starting to understand their real role in ecosystem maintenance, and we need to do it faster since many of these unknown places are also threatened by human impacts.