cerrado

[suh-rah-doh, si-rah-doo]

noun

Ecology.

plural

cerrados 

1. a type of plains community characterized by vegetation ranging from tropical broadleaf woodlands to scrublands, occurring in extensive areas of Brazil.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cerrado¹

< Brazilian Portuguese; Portuguese: noun use of cerrado thick, dense, literally, shut, past participle of cerrar to close < Vulgar Latin *serrāre; c in Portuguese, Spanish perhaps by association with cercar to enclose, surround

Example Sentences

In Brazil, huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna have been lost to pastures and fields that produce beef and soybeans.

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In recent weeks, blazes exacerbated by climate change consumed large sections of the Amazon rainforest, Pantanal wetlands and Cerrado savanna, as well as the southern state of São Paulo.

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In the Cerrado, which is the centre of agricultural production, there was a 6% increase in tree loss.

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Scientists examined the current range of more than 7,000 plant species in Brazil's Cerrado savanna, and estimated shifts based on warming by 2040.

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The Cerrado is just 0.4% of the planet's land surface, but it is home to 3.5% of all flowering plants -- approximately 12,000 species, a similar diversity level to the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

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