Spatial-temporal evolution of landscape degradation on the Guamá River Basin, Brazil

Este estudo teve como objetivo determinar a intensidade da antropização da bacia hidrográfica do rio Guamá nos anos de 2000, 2008 e 2018 por meio do Índice de Transformação Antrópica. Os mapas de uso e cobertura da terra foram obtidos em duas bases de dados: Projeto Mapbiomas e PRODES. As classes majoritárias definidas no mapeamento são: floresta, formação natural não-florestal, agropecuária, vegetação secundária, infraestrutura urbana, água e outras. A vegetação secundária foi classificada como a área das intersecções entre as classes de floresta do Mapbiomas e a área desmatada do PRODES, utilizando o operador de álgebra de mapas. O processo de ocupação resultou na expansão da agropecuária, que cresceu cerca de 10%, ao passo que a floresta apresentou uma redução de quase 10%. A bacia do rio Guamá obteve um Índice de Transformação Antrópica de 4,44 em 2000; 5,04 em 2008 e 5,09 em 2018, passando de um estado regular para degradado em 18 anos. Esses resultados estão relacionados à expansão da agricultura e da pastagem, especialmente em áreas de ocupação antiga. O processo de ocupação provocou grandes alterações nos componentes naturais da paisagem, ao longo de 18 anos, principalmente na quantidade de floresta. A proteção dos 35% da floresta primária remanescente na paisagem da bacia hidrográfica do rio Guamá é vital para a conservação dos recursos hídricos vulneráveis às mudanças no uso do solo.The goal of this study was to determine the anthropization evolution of the Guamá river basin in the years 2000, 2008 and 2018 by means of the Anthropic Transformation Index. Land use and cover maps were obtained from two databases, Project Mapbiomas (Brazilian Annual Land Use and Land Cover Mapping Project) and PRODES (Project for the Satellite Monitoring of the Brazilian Amazon Forest). The main classes defined in the mapping process are: forest, natural non-forest vegetation, agriculture and livestock farming, secondary vegetation, urban infrastructure, water and others. Secondary vegetation was considered as the area where the forest classes of Mapbiomas intersects with the deforested areas of PRODES, as determined by the map algebra operator. The expansion of agriculture and livestock farming achieved an increase of about 10%, while the forest was reduced in almost 10%. The Guamá river basin obtained an Anthropic Transformation Index of 4.44 in 2000, 5.04 in 2008 and 5.09 in 2018, going from a regular to a degraded state in 18 years. The occupation process caused major alterations in the natural components of the landscape over the course of 18 years, notably in the amount of forest. Protection of 35% of the remnant primary forest in the Guamá river basin is vital for the conservation of water resources vulnerable to changes in land use

Forest loss and forest restoration in the Brazilian Amazon. An overview and applied studies in Paragominas (Pará)

Los bosques tropicales están presentes en cuatro continentes, la magnitud de sus recursos naturales es impresionante, y a pesar de ocupar solo el 7% de la superficie de la Tierra, albergan más especies de animales y plantas que todos los demás biomas del planeta juntos. Una gran parte de estos recursos se atribuye a la Amazonía brasileña, que tiene un tercio de todos estos bosques, con una extensión territorial más grande que todos los países de la Unión Europea. El potencial de la biodiversidad Amazónica está representado por millones de animales y vegetales, que representan un papel esencial en el mantenimiento de numerosos servicios ecológicos, además de que la región también tiene una de las mayores fuentes de agua dulce, rica en madera noble, minería y productos no maderables. Debido a su relevancia económica e incentivos gubernamentales para el desarrollo, la Amazonía brasileña fue invadida y explorada irracionalmente durante muchos años, lo que provocó un cambio significativo en el paisaje y pérdidas irreversibles de biodiversidad. Fueron necesarios miles de años para la formación de un ecosistema único en el planeta, y debido a la explotación desenfrenada e irresponsable, la región fue deforestada brutalmente en tan solo 40 años. Considerando todo el contexto mencionado anteriormente, sobre la extrema importancia a nivel regional, nacional y global de la Amazonía, y los innumerables problemas ambientales experimentados y aún presentes en la región, planteamos como objetivo general de esta tesis, evaluar el potencial de la restauración forestal, con el fin de contribuir en la reducción de la deforestación y estimular los servicios del ecosistema para un mercado verde en la Amazonía brasileña. Para responder al objetivo general del estudio, la tesis fue estructurada en seis capítulos: a) capítulo 1: introducción general, contextualizando la importancia de la Amazonía brasileña y su situación ambiental real; b) los capítulos 2, 3, 4 y 5: abordan la investigación realizada en la tesis, estructurada como artículos científicos; y c) capítulo 6: destaca las principales conclusiones de la tesis. Los capítulos de investigación de esta tesis (capítulos 2, 3, 4 y 5), fueron analizados para brindar apoyo en el contexto de los procesos de restauración forestal en la Amazonía brasileña. En el capítulo 2, se evaluó todo el contexto histórico de degradación, los proyectos de restauración implementados y la información científica sobre restauración forestal en la región. En el capítulo 3, se analizaron los procesos que pueden dar lugar a acciones degradantes, así como los aspectos de conservación a menor escala. En este capítulo, se evaluó uno de los municipios de la Amazonía que nació en el pico de degradación de la región (municipio de Paragominas). Evaluamos los indicadores de restauración al monitorear la trayectoria de recuperación del ecosistema degradado en el capítulo 4 y la aplicación de diferentes protocolos de restauración en el capítulo 5. Todos los artículos de esta tesis ya están publicados en distintas revistas científicas de investigación: Capítulo 2: da Cruz, D. C., Benayas, J. M. R., Ferreira, G. C. et al. (2020). An overview of forest loss and restoration in the Brazilian Amazon. New Forests, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-020-09777-3. Capítulo 3: da Cruz, D. C., Benayas, J. M. R., Ferreira, G. C., Monteiro, A. L., & Schwartz, G. (2019). Evaluation of soil erosion process and conservation practices in the Paragominas-Pa municipality (Brazil). Geographia Technica, 14(1), 14-35. https://doi.org/10.21163/GT_2019.141.02. Capítulo 4: Ribeiro, S. S., da Cruz, D. C.; Oliveira, F. D. A., Ferreira, G. C., Santos, D. E. (2019). Forest Restoration Evaluation Through Indicators in Areas of Bauxite Mining. Floresta e Ambiente, 26(3). https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8087.081217. Capítulo 5: da Cruz, D. C., Benayas, J. M. R., Ferreira, G. C., & Ribeiro, S. S. (2020). Tree Communities in Three-Year-Old Post-Mining Sites Under Different Forest Restoration Techniques in the Brazilian Amazon. Forests, 11(5), 527. https://doi.org/10.3390/f11050527.The Brazilian Amazon has the largest tropical forest that holds the greatest biodiversity in the world. There is a strong link between the country’s economic development and the exploitation of its natural resources, which have resulted in a significant forest and biodiversity loss. The general objective of this Thesis was to evaluate the potential for forest restoration to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Brazilian Amazon. The Thesis has originated four scientific publications. The first one provides an overview of forest loss, on one side, and projects, techniques, and publications on the recovery of degraded areas in the region, on the other side. After the loss of one fifth of the original forest extent, there has been an attempt to halt deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. We identified 405 restoration projects, but we noticed a small number of high-quality scientific publications. The second publication evaluates vulnerability to soil erosion. The studied municipality (Paragominas) has a low soil vulnerability in its most part (77%), and only 3% of it was estimated as of high soil vulnerability. The third publication evaluates the outcomes of two contrasting forest restoration techniques by monitoring indicators in post- mining areas. Both techniques provided good recovery outcomes, although some indicators attained higher levels than others. The fourth publication assess tree composition, functional types, effect of distance between restored sites and seed sources, and the conservation status of established tree species under different forest restoration techniques (namely seedling planting, natural regeneration, and nucleation) implemented in post-mining sites. A substantial amount of tree biodiversity was recovered in these sites, but the techniques differed in specific outcomes. In short, our results are in agreement with the starting hypothesis that the Brazilian Amazon has undergone severe deforestation and, concomitantly, offers outstanding opportunities for forest restoration that will enhance biodiversity and provide benefits to humans

Beyond protected areas:assessing the role of legal reserves and permanent preservation areas for conserving tropical forests in private properties in the eastern Brazilian Amazon

Native vegetation covers about 60% of the national territory of Brazil, with 40% under some form of public protected area (conservation units and indigenous lands) and the remaining 60% located in private areas or public lands with no clear designation. The protection of forests on private land is therefore a vital part of any overall conservation strategy. In Brazil, the conservation of forest on private lands is regulated by the Brazilian Environmental Law (Law N° 12.651, 25 March 2012), commonly known as the Forest Code, and focus on two main mechanisms: Legal Reserves (LR) and Permanent Preservation Areas (APP in Portuguese). The aim of this thesis is to advance our understanding of some of the key challenges and opportunities facing forest conservation and restoration in the Brazilian Amazon by assessing the LR and APPs on private lands. Focused on Pará, the thesis provides the first assessment of the total LR deficit (LR that have been illegally deforested in the past) for any of Brazil´s Amazonian states as well as a uniquely comprehensive assessment of legal compliance with the protection and restoration of APPs, and critically examines implications for different actors and public policy. In Chapter 2 we found no evidence that riparian forests had been more effectively protected than non-riparian forests in the flagship municipality of Paragominas. Instead, deforestation was found to be comparatively higher inside riparian permanent preservation areas as recently as 2010, indicating widespread failure of private property owners to comply with environmental legislation. Moreover there was no evidence for higher levels of regeneration in deforested riparian zones than non-riparian zones, although property owners are obliged by law to restore such areas. A number of challenges limit efforts to improve the protection and restoration of riparian forests. These include limited awareness of environmental compliance requirements, better cartographic products and limitations in the technical capacity of the state and municipality governments. Considering the whole state of Pará, Chapter 3 shows that the total LR surplus (12.6 Mha) – based on the revised Forest Code – is more than five times the total area of deficit (2.3 Mha). Yet, of this total surplus, only 11% can be legally deforested (is in properties with >80% forest cover) and the remaining 89% is already protected by law but can be used (sold or rented) to compensate for areas that are under deficit. This analysis identifies that the majority of municipalities (111 out of 144) in the state could compensate their total LR deficit with surplus areas of LR within the same municipality, indicating compensation can always take place close to the source of the deficit. Maximizing the environmental benefits of achieving Forest Code compliance requires measures that go beyond the existing legal framework, including interventions to avoid further deforestation in places where it is still legal, compensate in close proximity to areas with legal reserve deficit and promote local restoration on degraded lands. Finally, Chapter 4 finds that, despite riparian APPs being mostly covered by forest in the state of Pará (63%), the area required to be restored by law (1 Mha) accounts for only about one-third of the deforested area that does not need to be restored following the 2012 revision of the Forest Code. This suggests that some important catchments in Pará may not recover fully functioning hydrological and ecological services, as around 2.7 Mha of consolidated APP are likely to remain deforested. We also demonstrated how coarse-scale mapping data consistently underestimates the extent of different APP areas, and thus the scale of the challenge presented by the compliance requirements of the forest code. In improving our understanding of the requirements and potential for forest compensation and restoration, through the mechanisms of APP and LR, offers a key advance for achieving environmental compliance in Pará and elsewhere in the Brazilian Amazon and the wider tropics

Looking beyond forest cover: an analysis of landscape-scale predictors of forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon.

While forest degradation rates and extent exceed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, less attention is given to the factors controlling its spatial distribution. No quantified correlation exists between changes of forest structure due to anthropogenic disturbances and dynamics of land use and cover change occurring at broader spatial levels. This study examines the influence of multi-scale landscape structure factors (i.e. spatial composition, configuration and dynamic of land use/cover) on primary forest's aboveground biomass (AGB), spanning from low to highly degraded, in Paragominas municipality (Pará state). We used random forest models to identify the most important landscape predictors of degradation and clustering methods to analyze their distribution and interactions. We found that 58% of the variance of AGB could be explained by metrics reflecting land use practices and agricultural dynamics around primary forest patches and that their spatial patterns were not randomly distributed. Forest degradation is mainly driven by fragmentation effects resulting from old deforestation and colonization events linked with cropland expansion (e.g. soybean and maize) coupled with high accessibility to market. To a lesser extent, degradation is driven by recent and ongoing (1985?2015) deforestation and fragmentation in slash-and-burn agricultural areas, characterized by heterogeneous mosaics of pastures and fallow lands combined with high use of fire. Our findings highlight the potential of landscape-level framework and remotely sensed land cover data for a thorough understanding of the distribution of forest degradation across human-modified landscapes. Addressing these spatial determinants by looking at agricultural dynamics beyond forest cover is necessary to improve forest management which has major implications for biodiversity, carbon and other ecosystem services

Developing cost-effective field assessments of carbon stocks in human-modified tropical forests

Across the tropics, there is a growing financial investment in activities that aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, such as REDD+. However, most tropical countries lack on-the-ground capacity to conduct reliable and replicable assessments of forest carbon stocks, undermining their ability to secure long-term carbon finance for forest conservation programs. Clear guidance on how to reduce the monetary and time costs of field assessments of forest carbon can help tropical countries to overcome this capacity gap. Here we provide such guidance for cost-effective one-off field assessments of forest carbon stocks. We sampled a total of eight components from four different carbon pools (i.e. aboveground, dead wood, litter and soil) in 224 study plots distributed across two regions of eastern Amazon. For each component we estimated survey costs, contribution to total forest carbon stocks and sensitivity to disturbance. Sampling costs varied thirty-one-fold between the most expensive component, soil, and the least, leaf litter. Large live stems (≥10 cm DBH), which represented only 15% of the overall sampling costs, was by far the most important component to be assessed, as it stores the largest amount of carbon and is highly sensitive to disturbance. If large stems are not taxonomically identified, costs can be reduced by a further 51%, while incurring an error in aboveground carbon estimates of only 5% in primary forests, but 31% in secondary forests. For rapid assessments, necessary to help prioritize locations for carbon- conservation activities, sampling of stems ≥20cm DBH without taxonomic identification can predict with confidence (R2 = 0.85) whether an area is relatively carbon-rich or carbon-poor—an approach that is 74% cheaper than sampling and identifying all the stems ≥10cm DBH. We use these results to evaluate the reliability of forest carbon stock estimates provided by the IPCC and FAO when applied to human-modified forests, and to highlight areas where cost savings in carbon stock assessments could be most easily made

Multiscale Anthropogenic Impacts on Stream Condition and Fish Assemblages in Amazonian Landscapes.

Land use change and forest degradation are resulting in pervasive changes to tropical ecosystems around the globe. While evidence from terrestrial systems demonstrates the severity of these disturbances for biodiversity conservation and provision of ecosystem services, the consequences for freshwater ecosystems remain poorly understood. This is especially true for the Amazon basin, the world's largest basin in both area and total discharge, and in particular for the complex network of low-order streams that make up the vast majority of its watercourses. These streams connect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems throughout landscapes and host much, if not the majority, of the freshwater fish fauna of the Amazon basin, which itself is one of the most diverse in the world. Despite the biological significance of these stream networks, the consequences of land use change for the condition of instream habitat and fish fauna remain very poorly studied and understood. This thesis aims to address part of this knowledge gap by investigating the effects of anthropogenic disturbances occurring at multiple spatial scales on stream condition and fish assemblages from human-modified Amazonian forests in the state of Para, Brazil. The thesis starts by asking how instream habitat (composed of both water quality and physical habitat features) responds to landscape-scale anthropogenic disturbances and natural features (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 then investigates changes in fish species richness, abundance and composition following changes in both instream habitat and landscape-scale anthropogenic disturbance. Last, in Chapter 4 I attempt to disentangle the relative importance of those multiscale environmental predictor variables on species-specific disturbance responses, and evaluate the potential effectiveness of the Brazilian legislation in accounting for them. The thesis uses field data on fish assemblages, instream habitat, and natural features of streams as well as data on land use change at multiple scales of the surrounding landscapes from satellite images. A total of 99 low-order streams were surveyed from five river basins in two large regions (Santarem and Paragominas, both with more than 1 million ha) in the eastern Brazilian Amazon agricultural-forest frontier. I sampled a total of 25,526 fish specimens belonging to 143 species, 27 families and seven orders. Streams appeared to be exceptionally heterogeneous in their abiotic and biotic features. For instance beta diversity of fish assemblages between streams accounted for ca. 70% of the total (gamma) diversity in each river basin. Overall these findings underscore the importance of multiple land use changes and disturbances, at multiple spatial scales, in shaping instream habitat, including links between catchment-scale forest cover and water temperature, and the impacts of road crossings on channel morphology. Both landscape and instream habitat variables were isolated as having a marked effect on stream fish, but instream habitat differences were shown to be particularly important in explaining patterns of fish species abundance compared to other landscape factors that are more amenable to management such as the protection of riparian forest strips. However the results of the thesis also highlight the complexity of Amazonian stream systems and the difficulties in disentangling the effects of multiscale environmental predictor variables underpinned by naturally heterogeneous biophysical characteristics-with instream habitat and fish assemblages affected by a broad suite of drivers that often varied across river basins and regions. I use the findings of the thesis to discuss challenges and recommendations for the management and conservation of low-order streams in Amazonian human-modified landscapes. In particular I emphasize the need for catchment-wide collective management approaches that go beyond the protection of riparian forests within individual properties as prioritized by existing Brazilian environmental legislation. Keywords: forest-agriculture frontier, water quality, physical habitat, human-modified tropical forests, ichthyofauna, deforestation, road crossings

Proceedings...

Anais e resumos dos trabalhos apresentados na II SIGEE.bitstream/item/152904/1/Second-International-Symposium-II-SIGEE.pdfCoordenador: Roberto Giolo de Almeida. Organizadores: Patrícia Perondi Anchão Oliveira; Maurício Saito; Cleber Oliveira Soares; Lucas Galvan; Lucimara Chiari; Fabiana Villa Alves; Davi José Bungenstab

Tropical forest structure: Ground measurements of coarse necromass and satellite observations of crown geometry

Forests are structurally diverse, but these structures derive from the same processes of disturbance and growth. Understanding forest structure can help unlock the history, function, and future of a forested ecosystem. Components of forest structure include tree size distributions, foliage distributions and variation in canopy density, and coarse woody debris (coarse necromass). Tropical rainforests are structurally the most complex of all ecosystems. In addition to having high biological diversity, Amazon forests are marked by complex vegetation dynamics and a diverse forest stand structures, which play an important role in the interactions of water and carbon between the biosphere and atmosphere. Two aspects of forest structure in Amazonia are examined in this thesis, canopy geometry and coarse necromass. A crown delineation algorithm was developed that uses high resolution satellite image data. This algorithm was applied to two forests with field based data on forest structure and then applied at seven locations across the Amazon basin. The algorithm provided forest structure based on crown geometry across vast areas the where field based studies would be prohibitive due to cost and time. Coarse necromass dynamics were studied through a combination of field work using novel techniques that measured necromass density, volume, and calculated mass for fallen and standing coarse necromass stocks at two tropical forested sites. For both sites, the effect that reduced impact logging (RIL) had on coarse necromass pools was found to generate 50% more coarse necromass. Density and void space estimates were found to not be significantly different between sites. Standing dead and fallen coarse necromass were found to be proportionally related across sites and forest types. The production of necromass at one site, Tapajos, was examined over a 4.5 year period, providing an estimate of necromass cycling. RIL and undisturbed forests were found to similar coarse necromass production. Mortality rates used to estimate coarse necromass production tend to underestimate the amount by about 55%. Finally a review of current literature dealing with coarse necromass dynamics in tropical forests was conducted

Global Forest Monitoring from Earth Observation

Covering recent developments in satellite observation data undertaken for monitoring forest areas from global to national levels, this book highlights operational tools and systems for monitoring forest ecosystems. It also tackles the technical issues surrounding the ability to produce accurate and consistent estimates of forest area changes, which are needed to report greenhouse gas emissions and removals from land use changes. Written by leading global experts in the field, this book offers a launch point for future advances in satellite-based monitoring of global forest resources. It gives readers a deeper understanding of monitoring methods and shows how state-of-art technologies may soon provide key data for creating more balanced policies