Climate changes in mangrove forests and salt marshes

This synthesis is framed within the scope of the Brazilian Benthic Coastal Habitat Monitoring Network (ReBentos WG 4: Mangroves and Salt Marshes), focusing on papers that examine biodiversity-climate interactions as well as human-induced factors including those that decrease systemic resilience. The goal is to assess difficulties related to the detection of climate and early warning signals from monitoring data. We also explored ways to circumvent some of the obstacles identified. Exposure and sensitivity of mangrove and salt marsh species and ecosystems make them extremely vulnerable to environmental impacts and potential indicators of sea level and climate-driven environmental change. However, the interpretation of shifts in mangroves and salt marsh species and systemic attributes must be scrutinized considering local and setting-level energy signature changes; including disturbance regime and local stressors, since these vary widely on a regional scale. The potential for adaptation and survival in response to climate change depends, in addition to the inherent properties of species, on contextual processes at the local, landscape, and regional levels that support resilience. Regardless of stressor type, because of the convergence of social and ecological processes, coastal zones should be targeted for anticipatory action to reduce risks and to integrate these ecosystems into adaptation strategies. Management must be grounded on proactive mitigation and collaborative action based on long-term ecosystem-based studies and well-designed monitoring programs that can 1) provide real-time early warning and 2) close the gap between simple correlations that provide weak inferences and process-based approaches that can yield increasingly reliable attribution and improved levels of anticipation.Esta é uma síntese enquadrada na Rede de Monitoramento de Habitats Bentônicos Costeiros (ReBentos, GT4: Manguezais e Marismas), embasada em literatura científica que examina interações entre clima e biodiversidade, assim como fatores antrópicos, incluindo aqueles responsáveis pela diminuição da resiliência sistêmica. O objetivo deste trabalho é determinar as dificuldades quanto à detecção de sinais precoces e alertas de mudanças climáticas com dados de monitoramento. No presente trabalho, também foram exploradas formas de contornar os diversos obstáculos identificados. A exposição e a sensitividade de espécies de mangue e de marisma, bem como dos ecossistemas dos quais fazem parte, os tornam extremamente vulneráveis e potenciais indicadores ambientais de mudanças de nível do mar e outras respostas às variações do clima. Entretanto, a interpretação de mudanças em manguezais e marismas e em seus atributos sistêmicos deve ser meticulosa, considerando assinatura energética, regime de distúrbios e pressões ambientais em cada local de estudo. Os potenciais de adaptação e de sobrevivência, em resposta a tais mudanças, dependem da fisiologia de cada espécie e dos processos contextuais onde reside a resiliência e a capacidade de persistir (em níveis local, de paisagem e regionais). A zona costeira deve ser alvo de medidas antecipatórias para redução de riscos por quaisquer impactos, uma vez que nela há intensa convergência de processos sociais e ecológicos. Os ecossistemas dessa zona devem ser integrados em estratégias de adaptação. O manejo costeiro deve ser embasado em mitigação pró-ativa e colaborativa de longo-termo, sempre com base em estudos ecossistêmicos e em programas de monitoramento que possam 1) prover sistema de alerta precoce; 2) preencher lacunas entre correlações simplistas que proveem inferências fracas, e abordagens baseadas em processos que levem a atribuições mais confiáveis e a melhores níveis de antecipação

Exploring the future land use-biodiversity-climate nexus in East Africa: an application of participatory scenario analysis

Climate change and land-use-land-cover change (LULCC) are expected to have major impacts on global biodiversity. In highly diverse tropical moist forests, future biodiversity trajectories will also depend on political and societal will to undertake the changes needed to reduce those impacts. We present a framework to build participatory spatially-explicit scenarios that can be used to analyse the biodiversity-climate-land-change tradeoffs, which we applied at different scales in East Africa. In Tanzania, under the business-as-usual pattern of economic growth, the Eastern Arc Mountains forests and biodiversity will be heavily impacted on, with increasing pressure on protected areas. Increasing variability of rainfall and temperature are likely to impact on where the LULCC are going to be, with the mountains likely to be refuges that are even more important for local communities. That may intensify impacts on biodiversity. In Taita Hills (Kenya) and Jimma Highlands (Ethiopia), stakeholders expected that adaptation interventions to climate change would generally improve biodiversity state. Preliminary data on birds community diversity in Taita Hills showed that though agroforestry system supports higher diversity than natural forest, species richness of rarer forest specialists remained highest within natural forests. Anticipating future conservation and agriculture interaction under climate change may contribute to set spatial priorities for intervention sites. Further investigations are required that could benefit from integrating local stakeholders’ perceptions and visions for the future

Spatial Assessment of the Bioclimatic and Environmental Factors Driving Mangrove Tree Species’ Distribution along the Brazilian Coastline

Peer reviewe

Assessing the spatial management of mangroves and small-scale fisheries in protected areas on the Brazilian Amazon coast

Mangroves are important providers of ecosystem services. Despite their relevance for conservation, they have been impacted by dynamic drivers that are causing loss of mangrove area worldwide. In Brazil, mangrove conservation strategies, such as spatial planning and protected areas, have not been fully implemented due to data deficiency on various social-ecological aspects of mangroves, including the spatial dynamics of small-scale fisheries. This thesis aims to investigate how multiple knowledge systems and assessment methods, including the ecosystem-based approach, participatory mapping, and GPS tracking can be combined for integrated management of mangrove protected areas, having as focus study areas two extractive reserves (RESEXs) in northeastern Para, Brazil. In order to achieve an ecosystem-based management approach, mangrove ecosystems need to be managed as an integrated system, and interconnections with other coastal ecosystems must be assessed and taken into account. Regarding the spatial management of small-scale fisheries that take place in mangroves, this research shows that a combination of participatory mapping and GPS tracking can help identify fishing areas and the origin of the crab demand for each area. These findings can be applied to the spatial management of the crab fisheries, including integrated zoning strategies for protected areas. This thesis also proposes a framework to establish the starting geographic level for integrated spatial planning. In northeastern Para, the spatial management of the four existing protected areas needs to be done in an integrated manner

Remote sensing in forestry: Application to the Amazon region

The utilization of satellite remote sensing in forestry is reviewed with emphasis on studies performed for the Brazilian Amazon Region. Timber identification, deforestation, and pasture degradation after deforestation are discussed

LOCAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE (LEK) ON THE MANGROVE CRAB Ucides cordatus (LINNAEUS, 1763): FISHERY PROFILE OF MANGROVE AREAS IN ITANHAÉM (SOUTHEAST BRAZIL)

The mangrove crab (Ucides cordatus) is a relevant fishery resource in Brazil, whose capture, transportation, and processing are regulated by specific laws. Information obtained from traditional crabbing communities are of significant importance, although they remain unacknowledged by the population of the Itanhaém River Estuary (São Paulo, Southeast Brazil). The present study shows the ethnozoological aspects related to the capture of U. cordatus, mapping the activity and providing subsidies for better fishery management. Crab catchers were recruited using the Snowball sampling technique and were submitted to a semi-structured questionnaire. The data were assessed quali-quantitatively through the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD) method and underwent statistical analysis when possible. The population of crab catchers was exceedingly small, comprising a remnant of “caiçara” fishermen, 78% of whom did not have a valid license, thus rendering their professional activity illegal. Most of the crab catchers (56%) use the tangle-netting technique, which is prohibited by law, including during the fishing season (60%). Around 77.4% of the traditional knowledge of these fishermen was confirmed in the literature, evidencing the great deal of wisdom that is passed on by more experienced crab catchers. Important gaps could be filled regarding the knowledge on this species, including the regularization of this artisanal form of fishery, requiring a review and new alternatives to be properly managed

Contamination and toxicity in a subtropical Estuarine Protected Area influenced by former mining activities

The present paper reviews information about sources, fate, concentrations and toxicity of the metals found in the Cananéia-Iguape Estuarine Complex (CIEC), which is within a Ramsar site, the Cananéia-Iguape-Peruíbe Environmental Protected Area (CIP-PA). The main sources of metals to CIEC are the former mining sites located upstream, on the Ribeira de Iguape River basin. Pb is reported as the element of primary concern, but Cu, Zn, Cr and As have been detected in sediments and biota. In general, higher levels of metals are associated with muddy sediments, in depositional portions of the estuary. Metals appear to be bioavailable, as sediment toxicity has been reported, together with bioaccumulation and sub-chronic effects in fish and invertebrates. Areas with higher concentrations of metals and more severe sediment toxicity are not necessarily the closest to the sources. The worse conditions occur in depositional sites, which depend on rainfall in catchment basin and hydrological processes in the estuary. In fact, during the flooding season the deposition of particles seems to move southward, carrying metals to the southern portion of the CIEC. The results suggest that the protection objectives are not being fully achieved, demanding actions to ensure control of both internal and external sources of contaminants for the CIEC. Additionally, new enforcements and actions are required to control the contamination sources of mining residues located upstream. The current review highlights that estuarine and marine protected areas may be impacted by contaminants released from distant sources, and this situation should be properly addressed in management plans

Landscape analysis and land use evolution in the hydrographic basin of Barra Seca river, ES

Multitemporal analysis for monitoring land cover and use is an important tool for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of a region, assisting the knowledge on the environmental reality. This study aimed at mapping the land cover classes of the Barra Seca River basin, in northern Espírito Santo, obtained using the Bhattacharya algorithm supervised classification in 1985, 1996, 2006 and 2016. The land use and occupation map allowed characterizing quantitatively the areas identified in the basin map in 10 classes as follows water bodies, agriculture and grasses, dense tree cover, sparse tree cover, exposed soil, wetlands, urban areas, rocky outcrops, shade, and clouds. The landscape maps were obtained using the Patch Analyst extension. In the studied time interval, the land use and occupation in the basin changed little, with areas dominated mostly by agriculture and grasslands, followed by forests while the basin vegetation area also remained mostly unchanged. However, the quantitative analysis using landscape metrics indicates an increasing fragmentation and edge effect in the Barra Seca River basin