Southeast region of Brazil

The Southeast region is composed of the following states:

state	capital
Sao Paulo-SP)	Sao Paulo
Rio de Janeiro - RJ)	Rio de Janeiro
Holy Spirit (ES)	Victory
Minas Gerais (MG)	Belo Horizonte

According to IBGE, it is the most populated region in Brazil. Its main physical characteristics are:

Relief of the Southeast Region

These are the highest average altitudes in Brazil, the main relief units are:

• Highland: O Plateau and Serra do Atlântico East-Southeast, is the relief that occupies the largest space in the Southeast region, are rounded, which is called by Milton Santos as Morphoclimatic Domain of Mares de Morros. They have known areas, such as Serra da Mantiqueira, Serra do Espinhaço and Serra do Caparaó (where Pico da Bandeira is located – the point highest in the Southeast) and holds important mineral resources (manganese, iron ore-mainly in the region of the Iron Quadrangle).

There is also in the Southeast the

Plateau and Serra de Goiás-Minas, the best known area of ​​this plateau is Serra da Canastra, it was through the study of rocks in this region that it was possible to detect that the state of Minas Gerais was already covered by the sea.

Finally, the Plateau and Plateaus of the Paraná Basin, this region underwent lava spill millions of years ago, in the constitution of this plateau there are rocks basalt, which, when eroded, originates the terra roxa soil, fertile soil, where coffee was cultivated in São Paul.

-Plains: It constitutes a narrow strip on the coast, in certain places, they even disappear, they are areas that receive sediments, the Southeast also has river plains.

-Depression: These are areas that are lower than the surrounding area, originating from intense weathering and erosion processes. The two depressions in the Southeast are the depression on the eastern edge of the Paraná basin and the Depression Sertaneja and the São Francisco River.

See too: North region

Vegetation of the Southeast Region

It is important to know that the vegetation cover in the Southeast region was the most devastated, currently, there are few original vegetation formations. The main natural vegetation in the Southeast are:

• Coastal vegetation: originates in a transitional area between the marine and continental environment, in places where the salt water of the ocean invades the fresh water of the rivers, giving rise to water with a higher salinity content than that existing in rivers, in this location coastal vegetation is formed, composed of mangrove. The restinga is part of the coastal vegetation, which appear in sandy soil areas.
• Araucaria: It is formed by tall trees (between 20 and 50 meters), they appear in places of high latitude, they are known as pine trees and in Brazil it occurs mainly in the South region, in the Southeast region it occupies little space.
• Tropical forest: Moist vegetation, dense, with tall trees and high biodiversity, animal and plant. This vegetation is called Atlantic Forest, one of the most devastated vegetation in Brazil, currently, there is approximately 7% of the original vegetation. These are present in the Plateau and Serra do Atlântico East-Southeast.
• Caatinga: It appears in the north of Minas Gerais, where the climate is semi-arid, with xerophytic vegetation, with thick husks (for avoid evapotranspiration), are thorny and tortuous, adapt to places of high temperature and rain irregular.
• Thick: Present in the interior of São Paulo and in large parts of Minas Gerais, composed of shrubs, with trunks tortuous, due to the acidity of the soil in this region, there are two well-defined seasons, the rainy summer and the winter dry. This vegetation also suffers from deforestation, especially criminal fires.

We also recommend: Northeast region

Climate of the Southeast Region

There are several bibliographies that use different criteria to classify the climate of the Southeast region. classification by José Bueno Conti, who classified three different climates in the Southeast region, high altitude tropical, subtropical and topical continental.

The weather Subtropical, occurs in a small part of the state of São Paulo, the rains are well distributed throughout the year, with lower temperatures and, due to the polar air mass, winter tends to be more severe than in the rest of the Southeast region.

To understand the climate altitude tropical,  we need to understand that the relief is an important climatic factor, because the higher the altitude, the lower the temperature, therefore, cities that are located at high altitudes, such as mountainous regions, tend to have lower temperatures and may register, during the winter, lower temperatures of 0°C. The main examples are Campos do Jordão (SP) and Nova Friburgo (RJ). The interior of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and a small part of Espírito Santo are the places of occurrence of the high tropical climate.

The weather Continental Tropical, it occurs on almost the entire Brazilian coast, to the north and west of the states of São Paulo and Espírito Santo. This climate has two well-defined seasons, the dry winter and the rainy summer. The coastal region, due to the maritime climate factor, tends to register lower thermal amplitude and has higher rainfall, the region corresponding to the north and west of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, due to the phenomenon of continentality, they present greater thermal amplitude and rainfall index lower.

It is important to note that on the border between Minas Gerais and Bahia, the highest temperatures in the Southeast region are recorded, in addition to the scarce rains, this happens, because this is a transition area between the continental tropical climate and the semi-arid climate present in the Sertão Northeastern. The portion of the state of Minas Gerais, in the far north, where this climate occurs is called, together with other states in the Northeast region, Polígono da Seca. The Brazilian government has recognized the demands of this region and is trying to create social policies that are effective in serving the population that resides in this area.