Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation

© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. Concerted political attention has focused on reducing deforestation, and this remains the cornerstone of most biodiversity conservation strategies. However, maintaining forest cover may not reduce anthropogenic forest disturbances, which are rarely considered in conservation programmes. These disturbances occur both within forests, including selective logging and wildfires, and at the landscape level, through edge, area and isolation effects. Until now, the combined effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the conservation value of remnant primary forests has remained unknown, making it impossible to assess the relative importance of forest disturbance and forest loss. Here we address these knowledge gaps using a large data set of plants, birds and dung beetles (1,538, 460 and 156 species, respectively) sampled in 36 catchments in the Brazilian state of Pará. Catchments retaining more than 69-80% forest cover lost more conservation value from disturbance than from forest loss. For example, a 20% loss of primary forest, the maximum level of deforestation allowed on Amazonian properties under Brazil's Forest Code, resulted in a 39-54% loss of conservation value: 96-171% more than expected without considering disturbance effects. We extrapolated the disturbance-mediated loss of conservation value throughout Pará, which covers 25% of the Brazilian Amazon. Although disturbed forests retained considerable conservation value compared with deforested areas, the toll of disturbance outside Pará's strictly protected areas is equivalent to the loss of 92,000-139,000 km2 of primary forest. Even this lowest estimate is greater than the area deforested across the entire Brazilian Amazon between 2006 and 2015 (ref. 10). Species distribution models showed that both landscape and within-forest disturbances contributed to biodiversity loss, with the greatest negative effects on species of high conservation and functional value. These results demonstrate an urgent need for policy interventions that go beyond the maintenance of forest cover to safeguard the hyper-diversity of tropical forest ecosystems

A social and ecological assessment of tropical land uses at multiple scales: the Sustainable Amazon Network

Science has a critical role to play in guiding more sustainable development trajectories. Here, we present the Sustainable Amazon Network (Rede Amazonia Sustentavel, RAS): a multidisciplinary research initiative involving more than 30 partner organizations working to assess both social and ecological dimensions of land-use sustainability in eastern Brazilian Amazonia. The research approach adopted by RAS offers three advantages for addressing land-use sustainability problems: (i) the collection of synchronized and co-located ecological and socioeconomic data across broad gradients of past and present human use; (ii) a nested sampling design to aid comparison of ecological and socioeconomic conditions associated with different land uses across local, landscape and regional scales; and (iii) a strong engagement with a wide variety of actors and non-research institutions. Here, we elaborate on these key features, and identify the ways in which RAS can help in highlighting those problems in most urgent need of attention, and in guiding improvements in land-use sustainability in Amazonia and elsewhere in the tropics. We also discuss some of the practical lessons, limitations and realities faced during the development of the RAS initiative so far.Keywords: Social–ecological systems, Tropical forests, Land use, Interdisciplinary research, Sustainability, Trade-off

The role of forest remnants on biodiversity retention and water conservation in a fragmented landscape of central region of Rondônia state, Brazil

Em toda a superfície terrestre o uso humano está transformando grande parte das florestas, especialmente na região tropical. O desmatamento de florestas tropicais é uma das principais fontes de emissão de gases do efeito estufa e a principal ameaça à conservação de espécies e dos serviços ambientais prestados pela floresta. Dentro desse contexto que também envolve a fragmentação do habitat, o objetivo desse trabalho foi analisar como as relações entre a dinâmica do uso e cobertura da terra afetaram a estrutura e composição da comunidade de vertebrados, e também a qualidade da água em riachos no Sudoeste da Amazônia brasileira. Nós analisamos esse processo em uma área de aproximadamente 50000 km² por meio de mapas classificados a partir de imagens de satélite ao longo de 36 anos de monitoramento. Nós observamos uma perda de floresta da ordem de 24826 km² relacionada, dentre outros fatores, à expansão da malha viária de 3158 km para 12863 km de extensão, tornando a área de estudo como uma das mais desmatadas de toda a Amazônia brasileira. A dinâmica do uso e cobertura da terra ao longo da série temporal mostra que as paisagens com desmatamento mais recente apresentaram fragmentação mais intensa do que aquelas com desmatamento mais antigo e onde ocorreu pequena ou nenhuma derrubada de floresta. Os resultados da inferência com modelos generalizados de mínimos quadrados mostram que a proximidade das estradas é um dos fatores que contribuem para o aumento no desmatamento, principalmente em áreas com menor declividade e distantes dos rios. Os modelos lineares generalizados com os maiores valores de importância relativa para explicar a riqueza de espécies, biomassa agregada e o índice de vulnerabilidade à caça foram compostos pela área, número e distância entre os fragmentos como variáveis independentes. A área de floresta é importante também para a conservação da água, principalmente quanto à sua proporção na faixa de 100 m ao longo dos riachos amostrados. Levando-se em conta as características dos solos predominantes na microbacias e a sazonalidade, principalmente nos meses chuvosos, a redução de floresta próxima aos rios é responsável pelo aumento nas concentrações de alumínio, fosfato, sedimentos em suspensão, amônio e nitrato, de acordo com nossos modelos lineares generalizados. Ao final, considerações foram feitas a respeito do aumento da fiscalização e da regularização fundiária para impedir que a fronteira do desmatamento continue a avançar sobre áreas de floresta primária, e que o manejo das áreas fragmentadas inclua a restauração da floresta, principalmente ao longo dos rios para diminuir o isolamento dos fragmentos remanescentes. Nós ressaltamos também, a necessidade de se estudar como as perturbações recorrentes nos fragmentos como corte seletivo e incêndios continuam afetando a comunidade de vertebrados que ocorrem fora das áreas contínuas de floresta.Extensive areas across the Earth surface have been modified by human land uses, particularly in the tropical region. Deforestation is one of main sources of emissions of greenhouse gases and the main threat to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by tropical forests. In the context of human-modified landscapes, including forest fragmentation, the main goal of this work is to understand the relationships between land use and land cover dynamics and the changes in the structure and composition of forest vertebrate community and also, the alterations in the quality of surface water in catchments. We assess land use dynamics about 50,000 km² of study area located in Southwestern Brazilian Amazon. By mean of maps of land cover classified from satellite images based in a 36-year monitoring, we observed a forest loss of 24,826 km² related to the expansion of road network from 3158 km to 12863 km in the same period. This result makes the study area as the most deforested of entire Brazilian Amazon. The land use dynamics show that fragmentation is higher in recent deforestation frontier than in both older deforestation and landscapes with few or no deforestation detected. Our results from inference with generalized least square models show that distance to the roads affects negatively the deforestation rates, mainly in flat areas and near to small and large rivers. The generalized linear models with higher relative importance to explain the species richness, aggregate biomass and the index of hunting vulnerability had as predictors the fragment area, number of patches and distance between fragments as major attributes of the landscape that affects the vertebrate community. The forest is important for maintenance of stream water quality, particularly if there is forest cover in the 100 m strips alongside the streams, considering the soil characteristics such as proportion of bases and seasonality. In our GLM multi-model analysis, the higher proportion of forest in surroundings the streams contributes to the increasing of concentrations in the rainy season of aluminum, phosphate, suspension sediments, ammonium and nitrate. At the end, we made consideration about law enforcement and landownership, to preclude the deforestation toward extensive areas of pristine forest. Moreover, we suggest that in fragmented landscapes the conservation efforts to be concentrated in forest restoration, mainly near to rivers, to reduce the isolation of the fragments. We highlighted the importance in monitoring the biodiversity responses to recurrent disturbing sources such as selective logging and accidental forest fires in fragmented landscapes

Ocorrência e distribuição espacial de mamíferos não-voadores em reflorestamento no sudeste do Brasil

The Conservation in countrysides landscapes only it will be understood in the context of the habitat fragmentation that have been affected the species richness, abundance and distribution. We carried out a mammal survey in platation forest at São Paulo State and 8 we discussed the species richness comparing with others sites surveyed elsewhere. We investigate the landscape influence in the mammal species distribution through spatial analysis. The absence of primate species in plantation forests appear to be a pattern for this environments. The species richness was similar among areas and it was higher when there have contiguous native forest remnants. Moreover the landscape interference don’t appeared affect the mammal species distribution. In overview the landscape connectivity is ameliorate with forest plantation. However, those species more susceptible to extinction in fragmented landscape only can persist when there are contiguous forest fragments from the plantation forests. The management of plantation forests can improves the conservation value for medium and large size mammals species at countryside landscapes.A conservação da biodiversidade em paisagens agrícolas só pode ser compreendida no contexto da fragmentação que afeta diretamente a riqueza, abundância e a distribuição de mamíferos. Foi realizado levantamento qualitativo e quantitativo das espécies de mamíferos de médio e grande porte presentes em uma plantação de eucaliptos e pinus na Floresta Estadual Edmundo Navarro de Andrade (FEENA) em Rio Claro, SP. A riqueza de espécies foi comparada com a encontrada em outras áreas similares e foi realizada uma análise espacial dos registros de ocorrência para avaliar a influência da paisagem na distribuição das espécies. Um padrão encontrado nos dados analisados é a ausência de espécies de primatas em plantios mono-específicos. A riqueza de espécies apresentou grande similaridade entre as áreas, sendo maiores para áreas com vegetação nativa adjacente demonstrando a importância do sub-bosque. A análise espacial não encontrou influências significativas para as métricas da paisagem analisadas. De uma forma geral, a conectividade da paisagem é melhorada com a implantação de plantios mono-específicos. Entretanto, as espécies mais propensas à extinção devido à fragmentação só ocorrem em áreas que apresentam vegetação nativa adjacente. Alterações no manejo das florestas plantadas podem aumentar o valor deste ambientes para a conservação de espécies de mamíferos

Big earth observation time series analysis for monitoring Brazilian agriculture

International audienc

Trees as nature-based solutions: a global south perspective

In the search for ways to address sustainability challenges, there is growing interest in nature-based solutions. Among these are calls to plant a trillion trees globally, which have been met with mixed responses. In this Voices, we ask researchers about the potential role of trees in mitigating and adapting to global change, as well as doing so in a way that does not compromise other Sustainable Development Goals.https://www.cell.com/one-earth/homehj2021Plant Production and Soil Scienc

Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation

Concerted political attention has focused on reducing deforestation1,2,3, and this remains the cornerstone of most biodiversity conservation strategies4,5,6. However, maintaining forest cover may not reduce anthropogenic forest disturbances, which are rarely considered in conservation programmes6. These disturbances occur both within forests, including selective logging and wildfires7,8, and at the landscape level, through edge, area and isolation effects9. Until now, the combined effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the conservation value of remnant primary forests has remained unknown, making it impossible to assess the relative importance of forest disturbance and forest loss. Here we address these knowledge gaps using a large data set of plants, birds and dung beetles (1,538, 460 and 156 species, respectively) sampled in 36 catchments in the Brazilian state of Pará. Catchments retaining more than 69–80% forest cover lost more conservation value from disturbance than from forest loss. For example, a 20% loss of primary forest, the maximum level of deforestation allowed on Amazonian properties under Brazil’s Forest Code5, resulted in a 39–54% loss of conservation value: 96–171% more than expected without considering disturbance effects. We extrapolated the disturbance-mediated loss of conservation value throughout Pará, which covers 25% of the Brazilian Amazon. Although disturbed forests retained considerable conservation value compared with deforested areas, the toll of disturbance outside Pará’s strictly protected areas is equivalent to the loss of 92,000–139,000 km2 of primary forest. Even this lowest estimate is greater than the area deforested across the entire Brazilian Amazon between 2006 and 2015 (ref. 10). Species distribution models showed that both landscape and within-forest disturbances contributed to biodiversity loss, with the greatest negative effects on species of high conservation and functional value. These results demonstrate an urgent need for policy interventions that go beyond the maintenance of forest cover to safeguard the hyper-diversity of tropical forest ecosystems

Landscape context of plantation forests in the conservation of tropical mammals

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T17:35:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-02-01Plantation forests have been expanding in many tropical and subtropical environments. Howerver, even when they replace less wildlife friendly land uses such as pastures and annual crops, the biodiversity levels of pristine natural habitats often have not been recovered. Here we addressed how the landscape context of plantation forests located in South-eastern Brazil affects species richness and community resilience of medium and large size mammals. The area covered by native habitat fragments surrounding plantation forests is positively related to functional richness, including the presence of species more vulnerable to extinction in fragmented landscapes. In addition, the degree of aggregation of plantation forest stands is negatively related to more vulnerable species. No primates were recorded in our seven plantation forest sites (ranging from 272 to 24,921 ha), even when they were seen in native habitat fragments adjacent to commercial tree stands. Two invasive species (Sus scrofa and Lepus capensis) were recorded in four plantation forest sites. The impoverishment of fauna in plantation forests is due to two factors. First, plantation forests generally are structurally simplified habitats when compared to highly diverse tropical forests. Secondly, the isolation from habitat fragments which act as source of individuals in the landscape precludes the establishment of individual in plantation forest. We also highlighted the management practices to improve the complexity of vegetation in commercial tree stands should be taken cautiously, insofar as reduced productivity per area entails a greater demand for land. Thus, an alternative would be intensify the management of the commercial tree stands for wood production together with the restoration of adjacent areas set aside to conservation and native habitat fragments protection.Laboratório de Biologia da Conservação Departamento de Ecologia–Universidade Estadual Paulista UNESPAliança da TerraLaboratório de Hidrologia Florestal Departamento de Ciências Florestais – Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz Esalq/USPLaboratório de Biologia da Conservação Departamento de Ecologia–Universidade Estadual Paulista UNES