The Cerrado is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the Brazilian highlands – the Planalto. The main habitat types of the Cerrado consist of forest savanna, wooded savanna, park savanna and gramineous-woody savanna. The Cerrado also includes savanna wetlands and gallery forests.
Vegetation in Pirineus State Park, Goiás
Green vegetation during the summer, Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goiás, Brazil
Fields of flowers in bloom during spring, Chapada dos Veadeiros, Goiás, Brazil
The frog species Physalaemus nattereri (posterior view shown) is found in the open cerrado, but not in adjacent gallery forests
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. According to Britannica, there exists four savanna forms; savanna woodland where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, tree savanna with scattered trees and shrubs, shrub savanna with distributed shrubs, and grass savanna where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.
A tree savanna in Tanzania, East Africa (Tarangire National Park)
A grass savannah in South Africa (Kruger National Park)
A savanna woodland in Northern Australia demonstrating the regular tree spacing characteristic of some savannas.
Bushfire in Kakadu National Park, Australia
