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81-656: The Cerrado savannas occupy most of the Gurguéia basin, while several large enclaves of Atlantic dry forest lie east of the river, separating the Cerrado from the dry Caatinga shrublands further east. 06°50′S 43°24′W  /  6.833°S 43.400°W  / -6.833; -43.400 This article related to a river in Piauí , Brazil is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Cerrado The Cerrado ( Portuguese pronunciation: [seˈʁadu] )

162-408: A diverse local population that relies heavily on the resources of their environment. Until the mid-1960s, agricultural activities in the Cerrado were very limited, since natural cerrado soils are not fertile enough for crop production, directed mainly at the extensive production of beef cattle for subsistence of the local market. After this period, however, the urban and industrial development of

243-833: A rhizobia species may often infect more than one host species. This means that one plant species may be infected by more than one species of bacteria. For example, nodules in Acacia senegal can contain seven species of rhizobia belonging to three different genera. The most distinctive characteristics that allow rhizobia to be distinguished apart are the rapidity of their growth and the type of root nodule that they form with their host. Root nodules can be classified as being either indeterminate, cylindrical and often branched, and determinate, spherical with prominent lenticels. Indeterminate nodules are characteristic of legumes from temperate climates, while determinate nodules are commonly found in species from tropical or subtropical climates. Nodule formation

324-665: A short hypanthium , usually cup-shaped. There are normally ten stamens and one elongated superior ovary , with a curved style . They are usually arranged in indeterminate inflorescences . Fabaceae are typically entomophilous plants (i.e. they are pollinated by insects ), and the flowers are usually showy to attract pollinators . In the Caesalpinioideae , the flowers are often zygomorphic , as in Cercis , or nearly symmetrical with five equal petals, as in Bauhinia . The upper petal

405-597: A significant increase in agricultural and cattle production. On the other hand, the urban pressure and the rapid establishment of agricultural activities in the region have been rapidly reducing the biodiversity of the ecosystems, and the population in the Cerrado region more than doubled from 1970 to 2010, going from 35.8 to 76 million. The Cerrado was thought challenging for agriculture until researchers at Brazil's agricultural and livestock research agency, Embrapa , discovered that it could be made fit for industrial crops by appropriate additions of phosphorus and lime. In

486-430: A staple, essential as a source of protein. Their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen reduces fertilizer costs for farmers and gardeners who grow legumes, and means that legumes can be used in a crop rotation to replenish soil that has been depleted of nitrogen . Legume seeds and foliage have a comparatively higher protein content than non-legume materials, due to the additional nitrogen that legumes receive through

567-399: A temperate crop, and currently, Brazil is the world's main soyabeans exporter due to the boom in animal feed production caused by the global rise in meat demand. Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize, and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for

648-736: A wide variety of growth forms , including trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, and even vines or lianas . The herbaceous plants can be annuals, biennials , or perennials, without basal or terminal leaf aggregations. Many Legumes have tendrils. They are upright plants, epiphytes , or vines. The latter support themselves by means of shoots that twist around a support or through cauline or foliar tendrils . Plants can be heliophytes , mesophytes , or xerophytes . The leaves are usually alternate and compound. Most often they are even- or odd- pinnately compound (e.g. Caragana and Robinia respectively), often trifoliate (e.g. Trifolium , Medicago ) and rarely palmately compound (e.g. Lupinus ), in

729-508: A wide variety of taxa representing the main lineages in the Fabaceae have been found in the fossil record dating from the middle to the late Eocene , suggesting that the majority of the modern Fabaceae groups were already present and that a broad diversification occurred during this period. Therefore, the Fabaceae started their diversification approximately 60 million years ago and the most important clades separated 50 million years ago. The age of

810-422: Is a relatively high diversity of snakes in the Cerrado (22–61 species, depending on site) with Colubridae being the richest family. The open nature of the cerrado vegetation most likely contributes to the high diversity of snakes. Information about Cerrado amphibians is extremely limited, although the Cerrado probably has a unique assemblage of species with some endemic to the region. Most birds found in

891-752: 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 . The second largest of Brazil's major habitat types , after

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972-511: Is closely related to human evolution . The family Fabaceae includes a number of plants that are common in agriculture including Glycine max ( soybean ), Phaseolus (beans), Pisum sativum ( pea ), Cicer arietinum ( chickpeas ), Vicia faba ( broad bean ), Medicago sativa ( alfalfa ), Arachis hypogaea ( peanut ), Ceratonia siliqua (carob), Trigonella foenum-graecum ( fenugreek ), and Glycyrrhiza glabra ( liquorice ). A number of species are also weedy pests in different parts of

1053-515: Is common throughout the Fabaceae. It is found in the majority of its members that only form an association with rhizobia, which in turn form an exclusive symbiosis with the Fabaceae (with the exception of Parasponia , the only genus of the 18 Ulmaceae genera that is capable of forming nodules). Nodule formation is present in all the Fabaceae sub-families, although it is less common in the Caesalpinioideae. All types of nodule formation are present in

1134-729: Is composed mainly of the Poaceae , Cyperaceae , Leguminosae , Compositae , Myrtaceae and Rubiaceae . Much of the vegetation in the gallery forests is similar to nearby rainforest; however, there are some endemic species found only in the Cerrado gallery forests. Soil fertility, fire regime and hydrology are thought to be most influential in determining Cerrado vegetation. Cerrado soils are always well-drained and most are oxisols with low pH and low calcium and magnesium. The amount of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus has been found to be positively correlated with tree trunk basal area in Cerrado habitats. Much as in other grasslands and savannas, fire

1215-497: Is defined by isoxazolin-5-one derivatives. These compounds occur in particular together with 3-NPA and related derivatives at the same time in the same species, as found in Astragalus canadensis and Astragalus collinus . 3-NPA and isoxazlin-5-one derivatives also occur in many species of leaf beetles (see defense in insects ). Legumes are economically and culturally important plants due to their extraordinary diversity and abundance,

1296-410: Is generally thought to be relatively low in the Cerrado compared to other areas like caatinga or lowland rainforest, although one recent study found 57 species in one cerrado area with the high diversity driven by the availability of open habitat. Ameiva ameiva is among the largest lizards found in the Cerrado and is the most important lizard predator where it is found in the Cerrado. There

1377-512: Is heterogeneous in terms of canopy cover. Goodland (1971) divided the Cerrado into four categories ranging from least to most canopy cover: campo sujo ( herbaceous layer with occasional small trees about 3 m tall), campo cerrado (slightly higher density of trees about 4 m tall on average), cerrado sensu stricto (orchard-like vegetation with trees about 6 m high) and cerradão (canopy cover near 50% with general height 9 m). Probably around 800 species of trees are found in

1458-525: Is important in maintaining and shaping the Cerrado's landscape; many plants in the Cerrado are fire-adapted, exhibiting characters like thick corky bark to withstand the heat. Cerrado vegetation is believed to be ancient, stretching back perhaps as far in a prototypic form as the Cretaceous , before Africa and South America separated. A dynamic expansion and contraction between cerrado and Amazonian rainforest has probably occurred historically, with expansion of

1539-429: Is limited to two dominant seasons throughout the year: Wet and dry. Annual temperatures for the Cerrado average between 22 and 27 °C and average precipitation between 80–200 cm for over 90% of the area. This ecoregion has a very strong dry season during the southern winter (approx. April–September). The Cerrado is characterized by unique vegetation types. It is composed of a shifting mosaic of habitats, with

1620-582: Is the innermost one, unlike in the Faboideae . Some species, like some in the genus Senna , have asymmetric flowers, with one of the lower petals larger than the opposing one, and the style bent to one side. The calyx, corolla, or stamens can be showy in this group. In the Mimosoideae , the flowers are actinomorphic and arranged in globose inflorescences. The petals are small and the stamens, which can be more than just 10, have long, coloured filaments, which are

1701-534: Is the most common family found in tropical rainforests and dry forests of the Americas and Africa. Recent molecular and morphological evidence supports the fact that the Fabaceae is a single monophyletic family. This conclusion has been supported not only by the degree of interrelation shown by different groups within the family compared with that found among the Leguminosae and their closest relations, but also by all

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1782-572: The Amazonian rainforest , the Cerrado accounts for a full 21 percent of the country's land area (extending marginally into Paraguay and Bolivia). About 75% of the Cerrado’s 2 million km is privately owned. Vast amounts of research have shown that the Cerrado is one of the richest of all tropical savanna regions and has high levels of endemism . Characterizing it by its enormous ranges of plant and animal biodiversity, World Wide Fund for Nature named

1863-872: The Brazilian Constitution as a National Heritage. It is also home to the Guarani Aquifer , stores the largest fresh water underground reservoirs in South America, and supplies water to a third of the Amazon river and the largest basins in the continent. Brazilian agriculturalists and ministers regard it as having no conservation value, and the government has protected merely 1.5% of the Cerrado biome in Federal Reserves. By 1994, an estimated 695,000 km of cerrado (representing 35% of its area) had been converted to 'anthropic [sic] landscape'. In total, 37.3% of

1944-522: The Orchidaceae and Asteraceae , with about 765 genera and nearly 20,000 known species. The five largest genera of the family are Astragalus (over 3,000 species), Acacia (over 1,000 species), Indigofera (around 700 species), Crotalaria (around 700 species), and Mimosa (around 400 species), which constitute about a quarter of all legume species. The c. 19,000 known legume species amount to about 7% of flowering plant species. Fabaceae

2025-516: The Paleogene to become a ubiquitous part of the modern earth's biota , along with many other families belonging to the flowering plants. The Fabaceae have an abundant and diverse fossil record, especially for the Tertiary period. Fossils of flowers, fruit, leaves, wood and pollen from this period have been found in numerous locations. The earliest fossils that can be definitively assigned to

2106-603: The Rosidae clade (as established by the gene molecular phylogeny of rbcL , a gene coding for part of the RuBisCO enzyme in the chloroplast ). This grouping indicates that the predisposition for forming nodules probably only arose once in flowering plants and that it can be considered as an ancestral characteristic that has been conserved or lost in certain lineages. However, such a wide distribution of families and genera within this lineage indicates that nodulation had multiple origins. Of

2187-563: The Tethys seaway during the Palaeogene Period. However, others contend that Africa (or even the Americas ) cannot yet be ruled out as the origin of the family. The current hypothesis about the evolution of the genes needed for nodulation is that they were recruited from other pathways after a polyploidy event. Several different pathways have been implicated as donating duplicated genes to

2268-454: The Xingu and Tapajós . During the last four decades, the Cerrado’s river basins have been highly impacted by extreme deforestation, expansion of the agricultural and cattle ranching frontier, construction of dams, and extraction of water for irrigation. The Cerrado is the second largest biome in South America and the most biodiverse savanna in the world. However, it is not currently recognized by

2349-458: The fruit of these plants, which are called legumes . Fabaceae range in habit from giant trees (like Koompassia excelsa ) to small annual herbs , with the majority being herbaceous perennials. Plants have indeterminate inflorescences, which are sometimes reduced to a single flower. The flowers have a short hypanthium and a single carpel with a short gynophore , and after fertilization produce fruits that are legumes. The Fabaceae have

2430-399: The legume , pea , or bean family , are a large and agriculturally important family of flowering plants . It includes trees , shrubs , and perennial or annual herbaceous plants , which are easily recognized by their fruit ( legume ) and their compound, stipulate leaves. The family is widely distributed, and is the third-largest land plant family in number of species, behind only

2511-498: The 10 families within the Rosidae, 8 have nodules formed by actinomyces ( Betulaceae , Casuarinaceae , Coriariaceae , Datiscaceae , Elaeagnaceae , Myricaceae , Rhamnaceae and Rosaceae ), and the two remaining families, Ulmaceae and Fabaceae have nodules formed by rhizobia. The rhizobia and their hosts must be able to recognize each other for nodule formation to commence. Rhizobia are specific to particular host species although

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2592-758: The Biodiversity of the Cerrado Biome, with UK Overseas Development Administration funding. Its aim is to survey the floristic patterns of Cerrado vegetation and to discover representative areas and biodiversity "hot-spots". A 2017 assessment found that 433,581 km , or 23%, of the ecoregion is in protected areas. Protected areas in Brazil include: as well as Noel Kempff Mercado National Park in Bolivia. Leguminosae The Fabaceae ( / f ə ˈ b eɪ s i . iː , - ˌ aɪ / ) or Leguminosae , commonly known as

2673-622: The Brazilian cerrados was provided by Danish botanist Eugenius Warming (1892) in the book Lagoa Santa, in which he describes the main features of the cerrado vegetation in the state of Minas Gerais . Taking advantage of the sprouting of the herbaceous stratum that follows a burning in the Cerrado, the aboriginal inhabitants of these regions learned to use the fire as a tool, to increase the fodder to offer to their domesticated animals. Xavantes , Tapuias  [ pt ] , Karajás , Avá- Canoeiros , Krahôs , Xerentes , Xacriabás were some of

2754-459: The Cerrado and play an important role in consuming and decomposing organic matter, as well as constituting an important food source to many other animal species. The highest diversity of galling insects (insects that build galls ) in the world is also found in the Cerrado, with the most species (46) found at the base of the Serra do Cipó in southeast Brazil. The first detailed European account of

2835-422: The Cerrado are relatively understudied. A yearlong survey of the Cerrado at one reserve in Brazil found that the orders Coleoptera , Hymenoptera , Diptera and Isoptera accounted for 89.5% of all captures. The Cerrado also supports a high density (up to 4000 per hectare) of the nests of leaf cutter ants ( saúvas ), which are also very diverse. Along with termites, leaf cutter ants are the primary herbivores of

2916-495: The Cerrado breed there although there are some Austral migrants (breed in temperate South America and winter in the Amazon basin) and Nearctic migrants (breed in temperate North America and winter in the Neotropics) that pass through. Most breeding birds in the Cerrado are found in more closed canopy areas like gallery forests although 27% of the birds breed only in open habitats and 21% breed in either open or closed habitats. Many of

2997-534: The Cerrado during glacial periods like the Pleistocene . These processes and the resulting fragmentation in multiple refugia have probably contributed to the high species richness both of the Cerrado and of the Amazonian rainforest. The Cerrado has a high diversity of vertebrates, with 150 amphibian species, 120 reptile species, 837 bird species, and 161 mammal species recorded. Lizard diversity

3078-444: The Cerrado has already been totally converted to human use, while an additional 41.4% is used for pasture and charcoal production. The gallery forests in the region have been among the most heavily affected. It is estimated that only about 432,814 km , or 21.3% of the original vegetation, remains intact today. During the last 25 years this biome has been increasingly threatened by industrial monoculture farming, particularly soybeans,

3159-421: The Cerrado the biologically richest savanna in the world, with about 10,000 plant species and 10 endemic bird species. There are nearly 200 species of mammal in the Cerrado, though only 14 are endemic. The large fraction of private ownership makes protection difficult though. The Cerrado's climate is typical of the wetter savanna regions of the world, with a semi-humid tropical climate . The Cerrado

3240-592: The Cerrado. Among the most diverse families of trees in the Cerrado are the Leguminosae  (153 spp.), Malpighiaceae  (46), Myrtaceae  (43), Melastomataceae  (32), and Rubiaceae  (30). Much of the Cerrado is dominated by the Vochysiaceae (23 species in the Cerrado) due to the abundance of three species in the genus Qualea . The herbaceous layer usually reaches about 60 cm in height and

3321-462: The Fabaceae appeared in the early Palaeocene (approximately 65 million years ago). Representatives of the 3 sub-families traditionally recognised as being members of the Fabaceae – Cesalpinioideae, Papilionoideae and Mimosoideae – as well as members of the large clades within these sub-families – such as the genistoides – have been found in periods later, starting between 55 and 50 million years ago. In fact,

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3402-536: The Fabaceae. Forisome proteins are found in the sieve tubes of Fabaceae; uniquely they are not dependent on ADT . The order Fabales contains around 7.3% of eudicot species and the greatest part of this diversity is contained in just one of the four families that the order contains: Fabaceae. This clade also includes the families Polygalaceae , Surianaceae and Quillajaceae and its origins date back 94 to 89 million years, although it started its diversification 79 to 74 million years ago. The Fabaceae diversified during

3483-708: The Faboideae, even though diversification within each genus was relatively recent. For instance, Astragalus separated from the Oxytropis 16 to 12 million years ago. In addition, the separation of the aneuploid species of Neoastragalus started 4 million years ago. Inga , another genus of the Papilionoideae with approximately 350 species, seems to have diverged in the last 2 million years. It has been suggested, based on fossil and phylogenetic evidence, that legumes originally evolved in arid and/or semi-arid regions along

3564-571: The Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae commonly bipinnate (e.g. Acacia , Mimosa ). They always have stipules , which can be leaf-like (e.g. Pisum ), thorn-like (e.g. Robinia ) or be rather inconspicuous. Leaf margins are entire or, occasionally, serrate . Both the leaves and the leaflets often have wrinkled pulvini to permit nastic movements . In some species, leaflets have evolved into tendrils (e.g. Vicia ). Many species have leaves with structures that attract ants which protect

3645-534: The Southeast Region has forced agriculture to the Central-West Region. The transfer of the country's capital to Brasília has been another focus of attraction of population to the central region: From 1975 until the beginning of the 1980s, many governmental subsidy programs were launched to promote agriculture, with the intent of stimulating the development of the Cerrado region. As a result, there has been

3726-577: The ability to take nitrogen gas (N 2 ) out of the air and convert it to a form of nitrogen that is usable to the host plant ( NO 3 or NH 3 ). This process is called nitrogen fixation . The legume, acting as a host, and rhizobia , acting as a provider of usable nitrate, form a symbiotic relationship. Members of the Phaseoleae genus Apios form tubers, which can be edible. The flowers often have five generally fused sepals and five free petals . They are generally hermaphroditic and have

3807-495: The apex (remaining free at the base), forming a boat-like structure called the keel. The stamens are always ten in number, and their filaments can be fused in various configurations, often in a group of nine stamens plus one separate stamen. Various genes in the CYCLOIDEA (CYC)/DICHOTOMA (DICH) family are expressed in the upper (also called dorsal or adaxial) petal; in some species, such as Cadia , these genes are expressed throughout

3888-429: The basic legume fruit. The Fabaceae are rarely cyanogenic . Where they are, the cyanogenic compounds are derived from tyrosine , phenylalanine or leucine . They frequently contain alkaloids . Proanthocyanidins can be present either as cyanidin or delphinidine or both at the same time. Flavonoids such as kaempferol , quercitin and myricetin are often present. Ellagic acid has never been found in any of

3969-512: The birds in the Cerrado, especially those found in closed forest, are related to species from the Atlantic rainforest and also the Amazon rainforest. The crowned solitary eagle , hyacinth macaw , toco toucan , buff-necked ibis , dwarf tinamou , and Brazilian merganser are examples of birds found in the Cerrado. Gallery forests serve as primary habitat for most of the mammals in the Cerrado, having more water, being protected from fires that sweep

4050-436: The chloroplast genes rbcL and matK , or the ribosomal spacers ITS ) and cladistic analysis in order to investigate the relationships between the family's different lineages. Fabaceae is consistently recovered as monophyletic . The studies further confirmed that the traditional subfamilies Mimosoideae and Papilionoideae were each monophyletic but both were nested within the paraphyletic subfamily Caesalpinioideae. All

4131-560: The compound 3-nitropropanoic acid (3-NPA, beta-nitropropionic acid ). The free acid 3-NPA is an irreversible inhibitor of mitochondrial respiration , and thus the compound inhibits the tricarboxylic acid cycle . This inhibition caused by 3-NPA is especially toxic to nerve cells and represents a very general toxic mechanism suggesting a profound ecological importance due to the big number of species producing this compound and its derivatives. A second and closely related class of secondary metabolites that occur in many species of leguminous plants

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4212-536: The different approaches yielded similar results regarding the relationships between the family's main clades. Following extensive discussion in the legume phylogenetics community, the Legume Phylogeny Working Group reclassified Fabaceae into six subfamilies, which necessitated the segregation of four new subfamilies from Caesalpinioideae and merging Caesapinioideae sensu stricto with the former subfamily Mimosoideae. The exact branching order of

4293-552: The different subfamilies is still unresolved. Polygalaceae ( outgroup ) Surianaceae (outgroup) Quillajaceae (outgroup) Cercidoideae Detarioideae Duparquetioideae Dialioideae Caesalpinioideae Faboideae The Fabaceae are placed in the order Fabales according to most taxonomic systems, including the APG III system . The family now includes six subfamilies: The Fabaceae have an essentially worldwide distribution, being found everywhere except Antarctica and

4374-494: The diminishing vegetation in the Cerrado, they now are receiving some charcoal from the eucalyptus plantations and these efforts are growing. The Cerrado biome is strategic for the water resources of Brazil. The biome contains the headwaters and the largest portion of South American watersheds (the Paraná-Paraguay, Araguaia-Tocantins, and São Francisco river basins) and the upper catchments of large Amazon tributaries, such as

4455-433: The establishment of a highly mechanized, capital intensive system of agriculture. There is also a strong agribusiness lobby in Brazil and in particular, the production of soybeans in the Cerrado is influenced by large corporations such as ADM, Cargill and Bunge, these latter two directly associated with the mass deforestation of this biome. One issue with expanding this reserve is that research needs to be done to choose

4536-447: The first indigenous peoples occupying different regions in the Cerrado. Many groups among the indigenous were nomads and explored the Cerrado by hunting and collecting. Others practiced coivara agriculture, an itinerant type of slash-and-burn agriculture . The mixing of indigenous, quilombola maroon communities, extractivists, geraizeiros (living in the drier regions), riverbank dwellers and vazanteiros (living on floodplains) shaped

4617-432: The flower, producing a radially symmetrical flower. The ovary most typically develops into a legume . A legume is a simple dry fruit that usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a "pod", although that can also be applied to a few other fruit types. A few species have evolved samarae , loments , follicles , indehiscent legumes, achenes , drupes , and berries from

4698-429: The genera or species analysed. Sugars are transported within the plants in the form of sucrose . C3 photosynthesis has been found in a wide variety of genera. The family has also evolved a unique chemistry. Many legumes contain toxic and indigestible substances, antinutrients , which may be removed through various processing methods. Pterocarpans are a class of molecules (derivatives of isoflavonoids ) found only in

4779-452: The high Arctic. The trees are often found in tropical regions, while the herbaceous plants and shrubs are predominant outside the tropics. Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF, performed by the organisms called diazotrophs ) is a very old process that probably originated in the Archean eon when the primitive atmosphere lacked oxygen . It is only carried out by Euryarchaeota and just 6 of

4860-428: The infection thread development in that infection threads grow in a polar manner that is similar to a pollen tubes polar growth towards the ovules. Both pathways include the same type of enzymes, pectin-degrading cell wall enzymes. The enzymes needed to reduce nitrogen, nitrogenases, require a substantial input of ATP but at the same time are sensitive to free oxygen. To meet the requirements of this paradoxical situation,

4941-532: The landscape and having a more highly structured habitat. Eleven mammal species are endemic to the Cerrado. Notable species include large herbivores like the Brazilian tapir and Pampas deer and large predators like the maned wolf , cougar , jaguar , giant otter , ocelot and jaguarundi . Although the diversity is much lower than in the adjacent Amazon and Atlantic Forest, several species of monkeys are present, including black-striped capuchin , black howler monkey and black-tufted marmoset . The insects of

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5022-400: The late 1990s, between 14 million and 16 million tons of lime were being poured on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tons in 2003 and 2004, equaling around five tons of lime per hectare. This manipulation of the soil allowed for industrial agriculture to grow exponentially in the area. Researchers also developed tropical varieties of soybeans , until then

5103-576: The location of these reserves because the Cerrado biome is floristically very heterogeneous and constitutes a biological mosaic. Teams from the University of Brasília , CPAC and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have been collaborating on this project for a number of years supported by Brazilian, European Community and British funds. The project has recently been expanded into a major Anglo-Brazilian initiative, Conservation and Management of

5184-461: The main Cesalpinioideae clades have been estimated as between 56 and 34 million years and the basal group of the Mimosoideae as 44 ± 2.6 million years. The division between Mimosoideae and Faboideae is dated as occurring between 59 and 34 million years ago and the basal group of the Faboideae as 58.6 ± 0.2 million years ago. It has been possible to date the divergence of some of the groups within

5265-580: The more than 50 phyla of bacteria . Some of these lineages co-evolved together with the flowering plants establishing the molecular basis of a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. BNF is carried out in nodules that are mainly located in the root cortex, although they are occasionally located in the stem as in Sesbania rostrata . The spermatophytes that co-evolved with actinorhizal diazotrophs ( Frankia ) or with rhizobia to establish their symbiotic relationship belong to 11 families contained within

5346-409: The pathways need for nodulation. The main donors to the pathway were the genes associated with the arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis genes, the pollen tube formation genes and the haemoglobin genes. One of the main genes shown to be shared between the arbuscular mycorrhiza pathway and the nodulation pathway is SYMRK and it is involved in the plant-bacterial recognition. The pollen tube growth is similar to

5427-431: The plant from herbivore insects (a form of mutualism ). Extrafloral nectaries are common among the Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae, and are also found in some Faboideae (e.g. Vicia sativa ). In some Acacia , the modified hollow stipules are inhabited by ants and are known as domatia . Many Fabaceae host bacteria in their roots within structures called root nodules . These bacteria, known as rhizobia , have

5508-436: The plants express a type of haemoglobin called leghaemoglobin that is believed to be recruited after a duplication event. These three genetic pathways are believed to be part of a gene duplication event then recruited to work in nodulation. The phylogeny of the legumes has been the object of many studies by research groups from around the world. These studies have used morphology, DNA data (the chloroplast intron trnL ,

5589-858: The process. Legumes are commonly used as natural fertilizers. Some legume species perform hydraulic lift , which makes them ideal for intercropping . Farmed legumes can belong to numerous classes, including forage , grain , blooms, pharmaceutical/industrial, fallow/green manure and timber species, with most commercially farmed species filling two or more roles simultaneously. There are of two broad types of forage legumes. Some, like alfalfa , clover , vetch , and Arachis , are sown in pasture and grazed by livestock. Other forage legumes such as Leucaena or Albizia are woody shrub or tree species that are either broken down by livestock or regularly cut by humans to provide fodder . Grain legumes are cultivated for their seeds , and are also called pulses . The seeds are used for human and animal consumption or for

5670-656: The production of indigo , Acacia , for gum arabic , and Derris , for the insecticide action of rotenone , a compound it produces. Fallow or green manure legume species are cultivated to be tilled back into the soil to exploit the high nitrogen levels found in most legumes. Numerous legumes are farmed for this purpose, including Leucaena , Cyamopsis and Sesbania . Various legume species are farmed for timber production worldwide, including numerous Acacia species, Dalbergia species, and Castanospermum australe . Melliferous plants offer nectar to bees and other insects to encourage them to carry pollen from

5751-709: The production of oils for industrial uses. Grain legumes include both herbaceous plants like beans , lentils , lupins , peas and peanuts , and trees such as carob , mesquite and tamarind . Lathyrus tuberosus , once extensively cultivated in Europe, forms tubers used for human consumption. Bloom legume species include species such as lupin , which are farmed commercially for their blooms, and thus are popular in gardens worldwide. Laburnum , Robinia , Gleditsia (honey locust), Acacia , Mimosa , and Delonix are ornamental trees and shrubs . Industrial farmed legumes include Indigofera , cultivated for

5832-412: The production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of eucalyptus and pines , but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export. Charcoal production for Brazil's steel industry comes in second to agriculture in the Cerrado. They actually are quite intertwined. When land is being cleared to make more land for agriculture,

5913-404: The recent phylogenetic studies based on DNA sequences. These studies confirm that the Fabaceae are a monophyletic group that is closely related to the families Polygalaceae , Surianaceae and Quillajaceae and that they belong to the order Fabales . Along with the cereals , some fruits and tropical roots, a number of Leguminosae have been a staple human food for millennia and their use

5994-404: The savanna-like cerrado itself on well-drained areas between strips of gallery forest (closed canopy tall forest) which occur along streams. Between the cerrado and the gallery forest is an area of vegetation known as the wet campo with distinct up- and downslope borders where tree growth is inhibited due to wide seasonal fluctuations in the water table. The savanna portion of the Cerrado

6075-425: The showiest part of the flower. All of the flowers in an inflorescence open at once. In the Faboideae , the flowers are zygomorphic, and have a specialized structure . The upper petal, called the banner or standard, is large and envelops the rest of the petals in bud, often reflexing when the flower blooms. The two adjacent petals, the wings, surround the two bottom petals. The two bottom petals are fused together at

6156-571: The subfamily Papilionoideae: indeterminate (with the meristem retained), determinate (without meristem) and the type included in Aeschynomene . The latter two are thought to be the most modern and specialised type of nodule as they are only present in some lines of the subfamily Papilionoideae. Even though nodule formation is common in the two monophyletic subfamilies Papilionoideae and Mimosoideae they also contain species that do not form nodules. The presence or absence of nodule-forming species within

6237-654: The three sub-families indicates that nodule formation has arisen several times during the evolution of the Fabaceae and that this ability has been lost in some lineages. For example, within the genus Acacia , a member of the Mimosoideae, A. pentagona does not form nodules, while other species of the same genus readily form nodules, as is the case for Acacia senegal , which forms both rapidly and slow growing rhizobial nodules. A large number of species within many genera of leguminous plants, e.g. Astragalus , Coronilla , Hippocrepis , Indigofera , Lotus , Securigera and Scorpiurus , produce chemicals that derive from

6318-419: The tree's trunks and roots are often used in the production of charcoal, helping to make money for the clearing. The Brazilian steel industry has traditionally always used the trunks and roots from the Cerrado for charcoal but now that the steel mills in the state of Minas Gerais are among the world's largest, it has taken a much higher toll on the Cerrado. However, recently because of the conservation efforts and

6399-483: The unregulated expansion of industrial agriculture, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation are drawing criticisms and have been identified as potential threats to several Brazilian rivers. This industrial farming of the Cerrado, with the clearing of land for eucalyptus and soy plantations, has grown so much because of various forms of subsidy, including very generous tax incentives and low interest loans. This has resulted in

6480-541: The wide variety of edible vegetables they represent and due to the variety of uses they can be put to: in horticulture and agriculture, as a food, for the compounds they contain that have medicinal uses and for the oil and fats they contain that have a variety of uses. The history of legumes is tied in closely with that of human civilization, appearing early in Asia , the Americas (the common bean , several varieties) and Europe (broad beans) by 6,000 BCE , where they became

6561-457: The world, including Cytisus scoparius (broom), Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust) , Ulex europaeus (gorse), Pueraria montana (kudzu), and a number of Lupinus species. The name 'Fabaceae' comes from the defunct genus Faba , now included in Vicia . The term "faba" comes from Latin, and appears to simply mean "bean". Leguminosae is an older name still considered valid, and refers to

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