The Pampas are located in Argentina, South America, also known as the Argentine Steppe or the South American Steppe. For us, Argentina is a very distant country. When argentina is mentioned, fans think of football, and foodies think of beef. This is because Argentina has a high level of football, and Argentina is a country with a very developed livestock industry, known as the world's meat bank.
Argentina has a long history of animal husbandry, livestock level, meat production are in the world's leading position. Argentina's livestock industry has developed mainly due to its fertile land.
With a total area of about 2.78 million square kilometers, Argentina is one of the world's largest countries, second only to Brazil in South America. Argentina's topography is high in the west and low in the east, with the Andes in the west, the Plain of La Plata in the east and central, and the Plateau of Patagonia in the south. Livestock farming in Argentina is mainly concentrated in the central and eastern regions.
Above the plain of La Plata there is a vast prairie called the Pampas. The name Pampas is derived from the Indian language, meaning prairie without trees.
The Pampas are home to some of the finest pastures in all of South America. The grass here belongs to the sclerophyll grasses such as the genus Stipa and the genus Triangipus, which are the favorite delicacies of cattle and sheep, and the grass grows very fast, enough for cattle and sheep to eat.
There are three main reasons for the good growth of grasses in the Pampas. First, there are rivers, and the Paraná River, the great river in South America, flows through here. Second, the Pampas have a subtropical climate with high temperatures and abundant precipitation. Third, the land of the Pampas is fertile and belongs to one of the world-famous black soil distribution areas.
Black soil is a land with good traits, high fertility, and is very suitable for plant growth, and is known as the most fertile land in the world because it is rich in organic matter. Under the same conditions, the output of black soil far exceeds that of other soils, which is an important reason for the abundance of aquatic grass in the Pampas. Speaking of black soil, China's northeast plain is also the world's main black soil distribution area, which has fertile black soil and is an important production base for grain, soybeans and animal husbandry in China. So which land is more fertile than the Pampas?
This has to start with the cause of the black soil. Black soil is highly fertile, but it is also very difficult to form, and the formation of black soil requires a suitable climate and suitable geological conditions. First of all, the formation of black soil requires a mild and humid summer and a cold and dry climate in winter. Secondly, the formation of black soil requires poorly drained geological conditions.
The specific process is that the plants grow rapidly in the warm and humid environment of the summer, and in the autumn, a large number of plants accumulate on the ground. In winter, due to the harsh climate and poor drainage, frozen soil can be formed to preserve the plant debris, and the plant debris will begin to decompose until the next spring when the flowers bloom. And because the climate is mild, decomposition is slow, and after the new plants grow and wither, the plant debris of the previous year has not yet decomposed. Therefore, the accumulation of organic matter will exceed the amount of decomposition every year, so after years of accumulation, humus will continue to thicken and form black soil.
Scientists estimate that it takes two hundred to four hundred years for every centimeter of black soil to form. Due to the difficulty of soil formation and the high requirements for climatic and geological conditions, the black soil in the world now has obvious distribution laws, mainly concentrated in the 45 degrees north latitude, and the northeast of China is at this latitude.
The Argentine Pampas, due to its subtropical climate zone, there is no cold and long winter, the organic matter produced by plant decomposition cannot rely on the cold for long-term sedimentation, which leads to the faster formation of black soil in the Pampas, but the fertility is naturally inferior to that of the northeast plain.
Although the climate of the Pampas is humid and hot, the geological environment is more suitable, due to poor drainage, a large number of plant debris can be submerged in the ground stagnation slow decomposition and form a large amount of humus, resulting in the same large accumulation of humus here, thus forming a black soil distribution area in the southern hemisphere.
Moreover, the humid and hot climate causes the black soil of the Pampas to be rich in iron oxide and appear distinctly red, so the black soil of the Pampas is a reddish black soil. So in comparison, the Northeast Plains are more fertile, and of course the Pampas are still extremely fertile compared to other types of soil. Now the Pampas not only has animal husbandry, but also some areas have been reclaimed into arable land, and have become an important agricultural area in Argentina.