GEO-UNITS AND SOIL VEGETATION RELATIONSHIPS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTED AREA OF SERRA SANTA HELENA, SETE LAGOAS, MG
Conservation Units, Serra Santa Helena, soil mapping.
The environmental protection area (APA) of Serra de Santa Helena is located in the central region of the state of Minas Gerais, in the municipality of Sete Lagoas and stands out as an important area of water recharge in the region. The main objective of this study was to identify, characterize and map the geoenvironmental and soil units that make up the landscape of Parque da Cascata, in the southern region of the Serra de Santa Helena APA, which concentrates the largest flow of visitors and, therefore, of special interest. interest in expanding knowledge about the conservation unit. The identification of the soil profiles followed the Manual of Description and Collection of Soils in the Field of the Brazilian Society of Soils and the laboratory analyzes of the physical and chemical properties followed the respective technical manuals of Embrapa. 10 soil profiles representative of the Parque da Cascata were identified and described, which demonstrated the great influence of the source material (siltstones), with the predominance of the silty texture that gives the greatest propensity to erosive processes and which characterize the class of the oxisols as the least susceptible to these processes and of great importance for water infiltration.