DEGRADAÇÃO DA CAATINGA: UMA INVESTIGAÇÃO ECOGEOGRÁFICA

Abstract

The domain geographical ecology of the caatinga occupies an area of about 750.000 Km² and it includes parts of the territories the states of Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia and part of Minas Gerais. Its area corresponds at 54% of the Northeast and 11% of the brazilian territory and it constitutes it calling Polygon of the Droughts. The use of the caatinga as extensive pasture comes causing strong degradations and for irreversible times in that ecosystem. They are already found extensive areas whose vegetation already meets very impoverished; having lost the diversification vegetation that is it typical. Even so, the regeneration cannot almost always happen because of the intense and constant human pressure. This, once ceased, it would allow, the medium or long term, that the vegetation if it reconstituted. So that that was possible it would be precise to take in bill the factors such geographical ecology as: location, soil types, rock-mother, indexes precipitation and duration of the station evaporates. Of what concisely was exposed, it can be ended that the degrading activities as, especially the extensive cattle creation, contributed to structural alterations of the caatinga and that these they are reflected in its polymorphism, but they are not the only factors. However that was the purpose of that work of presenting a vision geographical ecology of the caatinga submitted to the human, special activity the cattle creation, and the consequences impacts for the vegetable covering in the semi-arid brazilian.