SPATIAL AND LIMNOLOGICAL CARACTERIZATION OF THE PARAGUAI RIVER FLOODPLAIN AREA, SOUTHERN PANTANAL, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE 'DECOADA' PHENOMENON

The objective of this study is to contribute to improve understanding of the ‘Decoada’ phenomenon, the local term for the seasonal alteration of limnological parameters, including depletion of dissolved oxygen that can cause natural fish kills, in the Pantanal Wetlands (Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil). Two water bodies, adjacent to the Paraguay River (Baía Tuiuiú and Bracinho) were studied over a hydrological period (April 2008 to February 2009). The sampling plan was prepared using GIS tools. In each environment a grid of 2 per 12 square cells of 70 meters side was created. It was positioned in its center to guide the sampling during rising and flood phases as well as in the drainage and low-water phases. The bimonthly sampling included ten randomly selected sample points. The measured limnological variables were ordinate, using a PCA for each studied site. A strong influence of the flood pulse was observed on them, with particular changes occurring during the ‘decoada’ phenomeno

Funções eco-hidrológicas das florestas nativas e o Código Florestal

The relationship between forest cover and water supply has been studied for decades, especially in regard to the ecohydrological functions provided by native vegetation. In this study, we present a literature synthesis of the different ecohydrological functions provided by the forests and how the provision of these functions may be affected by recent changes in the Brazilian Forest Code. Depending on the location in the watershed, the functions provided by the forests can be more associated to aquifer recharge, to the reduction of runoff and erosion, to the protection of water bodies, or complementing all these functions. Thus, forest cover is needed in different regions of the watersheds to ensure the provision of all ecohydrological functions. The new Brazilian Forest Code reduced the legal protection of vegetation in all the different regions of the watersheds, and may reduce provision of water resources in adequate quality and regularity needed to supply future demands. To mitigate this situation, it is necessary to establish new public policies to maintain or restore native vegetation in different regions of the watersheds.A existência de uma relação entre cobertura florestal e provisão de água é foco de estudos há décadas, especialmente no que diz respeito às funções eco-hidrológicas da vegetação situada em diferentes posições do relevo. Neste artigo, fazemos uma síntese da literatura sobre essas funções e analisamos como as mudanças recentes no Código Florestal Brasileiro podem afetar essas relações. Mostramos que a posição no relevo da vegetação nativa altera as funções eco-hidrológicas que elas exercem, sendo mais voltadas para a recarga de aquíferos, ou para a redução do escoamento superficial e contenção de processos erosivos, ou para a proteção de corpos d'água, ou ainda como elementos auxiliares em todas essas funções. Assim, é necessário haver cobertura vegetal em cada posição do relevo, para garantir a provisão das funções eco-hidrológicas no conjunto de uma bacia. O novo Código Florestal, ao promover uma redução da proteção da vegetação em todas as posições do relevo, deverá reduzir a capacidade de provisão de água em qualidade e regularidade compatíveis com as demandas futuras. Para reverter essa situação, é necessário estabelecer novas políticas públicas que promovam a manutenção ou a restauração da vegetação natural em todas as posições do relevo

Remnants of natural vegetation in different types of agricultural production units in the Origança river watershed, São Paulo state

sem informaçãoEste trabalho analisa a diferenciação entre as Unidades de Produção Agropecuária (UPAs) da Microbacia do Rio Oriçanga, Estado de São Paulo, com ênfase na capacidade de uso das terras e nos remanescentes de vegetação natural. Uma tipologia foi construída a5726380sem informaçãosem informaçãosem informaçãoOs autores agradecem a Vera Lúcia Ferraz dos Santos Francisco, Pesquisadora do Instituto de Economia Agrícola (IEA) ; Francisco Eduardo Bernal Simões, Coordenador da Coordenadoria de Assistência Técnica Integral (CATI) em 2008 ; Antonio Carlos de Sousa

Strategic approaches to restoring ecosystems can triple conservation gains and halve costs.

International commitments for ecosystem restoration add up to one-quarter of the world's arable land. Fulfilling them would ease global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity decline but could displace food production and impose financial costs on farmers. Here, we present a restoration prioritization approach capable of revealing these synergies and trade-offs, incorporating ecological and economic efficiencies of scale and modelling specific policy options. Using an actual large-scale restoration target of the Atlantic Forest hotspot, we show that our approach can deliver an eightfold increase in cost-effectiveness for biodiversity conservation compared with a baseline of non-systematic restoration. A compromise solution avoids 26% of the biome's current extinction debt of 2,864 plant and animal species (an increase of 257% compared with the baseline). Moreover, this solution sequesters 1 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent (a 105% increase) while reducing costs by US$28 billion (a 57% decrease). Seizing similar opportunities elsewhere would offer substantial contributions to some of the greatest challenges for humankind

Analysis of the landscape around three natural reserves in São Paulo State: subsidies for designing a buffer zone

As Unidades de Conservação (UCs) foram criadas para proteger e manter os remanescentes de ecossistemas naturais a fim de reduzir a perda da biodiversidade e garantir sua manutenção em longo prazo. Atualmente, muitas UCs se encontram na forma de pequenos fragmentos isolados e sob forte pressão antrópica, exigindo um manejo na forma de uma rede de fragmentos, visando reduzir as pressões das atividades do entorno. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo gerar subsídios para a criação de uma zona de amortecimento (ZA) comum para o Parque Estadual de Vassununga e para a Estação Ecológica de Jataí, visando reduzir as pressões antrópicas sobre as UCs e facilitar o fluxo biológico entre os fragmentos. Foi realizado o mapeamento da paisagem para identificar as principais formas de uso, as fontes de impactos ambientais e verificar o cumprimento da legislação de áreas de preservação permanente. Foram utilizadas métricas de paisagens para analisar a configuração espacial dos remanescentes de vegetação arbórea e selecionar fragmentos importantes para a facilitação do fluxo biológico. Foram utilizados modelos de previsão de riqueza e probabilidade de ocorrência de espécies-alvo de aves para selecionar áreas potencialmente importantes para a manutenção da biodiversidade. A paisagem da área de estudo apresenta menos de 30% de remanescentes de vegetação natural, distribuídos em pequenos fragmentos, imersos em uma matriz de cana-de-açúcar e eucalipto. O desrespeito à legislação e numerosas fontes de impacto ambiental contribuem para aumentar a pressão sobre os recursos naturais. O incremento da conectividade dos fragmentos, principalmente com a restauração das florestas ribeirinhas mostrou ser uma estratégia importante para restabelecer a conectividade funcional entre as UCs e entre os remanescentes da paisagem. Na região existem fragmentos com potencial para facilitar os fluxos biológicos, atuando como uma rede de fragmentos, e auxiliar na manutenção da biodiversidade. Porém, grande parte deles está localizada no interior de propriedades particulares, exigindo esforços para conscientização dos proprietários para proteção e incremento da conectividade destes fragmentos.Natural reserves have been created to protect and maintain natural ecosystems remnants in order to reduce biodiversity loss and to ensure their maintenance in the long run. Nowadays, most of these reserves are small and isolated fragments under anthropogenic pressure. Such small remnants must be managed and protected as a fragment network to reduce the human pressure and to promote biological fluxes among fragments. This study aimed at producing information to help on the process of designing a common buffer zone for three public natural reserves: Vassununga State Park, Jataí Ecological Station and Luís Antônio Experimental Station. An up to date land cover/land use map was generated to identify the main activities and sources of anthropogenic impacts in the study area, their possible consequences to the environment, and also if and how much the environmental legislation is being followed. To select the most important natural fragments which could facilitate biological fluxes and maintain the regional biodiversity, two approaches were used: analysis of the spatial arrangement of the fragments in the landscape applying landscape metrics, and the use of models to predict bird species richness and occurrence. The studied area presently has less than 30% of remnant natural vegetation, spread as small fragments in a sugar cane and eucalyptus matrix. Environmental legislation is not being obeyed and, together with several sources of impact, produce negative pressures on the natural resources. The restoration of riparian forests would be a good strategy to reestablish the landscape functional connectivity. Fragments able to facilitate biological fluxes and to maintain biological diversity still exist in the region, but a great deal of them are located in private properties. Therefore, efforts to warn and educate the owners are needed to increase the landscape connectivity and to conserve the regional biodiversity

Spatial strategies to optimize restoration efforts based on landscape ecology theory

Os efeitos deletérios da perda e fragmentação de habitat são considerados a maior ameaça à manutenção da biodiversidade do planeta. Uma das maneiras de evitar a perda de espécies em paisagens fragmentadas é a restauração ecológica, que propicia tanto o aumento da quantidade quanto a melhoria da qualidade do habitat remanescente. Além de influenciar a persistência de espécies, as condições da paisagem são reconhecidas como importantes para o sucesso das ações de restauração. Entretanto, as diretrizes para incorporação das características da paisagem no planejamento da restauração são ainda ambíguas, não facilitando o processo de tomada de decisão. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo contribuir para o avanço do uso de análises espacialmente explícitas da estrutura da paisagem para o planejamento de ações de restauração. Para isso, foram elaboradas propostas metodológicas embasadas no atual conhecimento da ecologia de paisagens e foram realizadas simulações para comparar os potenciais benefícios para a biodiversidade resultantes de diferentes estratégias para seleção de áreas para restauração. A primeira proposta, apresentada no capítulo 2, utiliza análises de paisagens em múltiplas escalas, baseadas na teoria dos grafos, para estimar a resiliência das paisagens, entendida neste trabalho como a capacidade das paisagens de reverterem extinções locais por processos de migração. Em seguida, as paisagens com condições ideais para restauração são classificadas segundo sua importância como corredores biológicos e gargalos de conectividade. Essa proposta metodológica é aplicada no caso da Mata Atlântica (capítulo 3), a fim de estabelecer diferentes níveis de prioridade para restauração no conjunto deste bioma. No quarto capítulo, é apresentada uma segunda proposta metodológica, também baseada em análises de conectividade com o uso da teoria dos grafos, mas desta vez voltada para a identificação de áreas prioritárias para restauração em escala local. Essa proposta permite ainda a comparação de prioridades entre áreas situadas em paisagens com diferentes condições de cobertura e conectividade de habitat. Por fim, no quinto capítulo, foi realizado um conjunto de simulações de restauração para comparar os efeitos das características da paisagem (e.g. a cobertura e configuração florestal), das espécies (e.g. a capacidade de dispersão) e da estratégia de restauração (e.g. o tamanho das áreas restauradas e a ordem temporal da restauração) no aumento da disponibilidade de habitat em três paisagens reais da Mata Atlântica. Os resultados desta tese permitiram estabelecer prioridades de restauração tanto em escala regional quanto em escala local, reduzindo as áreas a serem visitadas em campo e possibilitando a otimização dos esforços de restauração. Também foi possível concluir que a adoção de estratégias espaciais para a seleção de áreas para restauração deve ser feita considerando tanto as características das espécies quanto as características das paisagens e a forma de implementação da restauração. Na ausência de informações detalhadas sobre a capacidade de dispersão das espécies, abordagens baseadas em múltiplas capacidades de dispersão são recomendadas. O embasamento teórico da ecologia de paisagens e as ferramentas atuais de tratamento e integração de dados espacializados permitem a definição das melhores estratégias de restauração a partir de simulações em computador, reduzindo substancialmente os custos da restauração e aumentando a sua eficácia para a conservação das espécies em paisagens fragmentadasThe deleterious effects of habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the main threats to biodiversity. To avoid species loss due to these deleterious effects, there is an urgent need to conduct restoration actions to increase the quantity and quality of the remaining habitat. Besides influencing species persistence, the landscape structure also influences the results of restoration actions. However, guidelines to adopt a landscape approach during restoration planning are not always consistent, nor easy to apply. The objective of this study was to contribute to advances in the use of spatially explicit landscape analysis during restoration planning. To achieve this goal we developed methodological frameworks based on landscape ecology theory to set priority areas for restoration. We also adopted a simulation approach to analyze the potential benefits of different restoration strategies for biodiversity conservation. The methodological proposal presented in chapter 2 consists in multi-scale landscape analyses, based on graph theory, to estimate landscape resilience. We considered landscape resilience as the capacity to revert local species extinctions through recolonization processes. Then, those landscapes considered ideal targets to restoration actions were classified according to their importance as corridors or bottlenecks for biological flow. In chapter 3, the methodological proposal presented in chapter 2 was applied to the Atlantic Forest Biome to set restoration priorities. Chapter 4 consists in a methodological proposal, also based on graph theory, to set restoration priorities in local scale. This methodological proposal also allows the comparison of local restoration priority between landscapes with different amount and configuration of habitat cover. Finally, in the fith chapter we adopted a simulation approach to analyze the improvement of habitat availability, in three Atlantic Forest landscapes, due to different restoration strategies considering: (i) different species dispersal capabilities, (ii) initial habitat amount in the landscape, (iii) the dynamics of landscapes during restoration implementation, i.e., the changes in habitat availability as new areas were restored, and (iv) size of restored areas. The results of this study allowed us to establish local and regional restoration priorities, thus reducing field visits and optimizing restoration efforts. It was also possible to conclude that spatial strategies to set restoration priorities should be conceived based on species dispersal capacities, landscape structure and also considering the strategies to implement restoration actions. If data on species dispersal characteristics is not available, a multi species approach to set restoration priorities is also recommended. The theoretical background of landscape ecology and the available tools to manage spatial data allow identifying the best restoration strategies, reducing the costs and optimizing the benefits to conserve biodiversity in fragmented landscape

Habitat cover, connectivity, and forest restoration potential in an Atlantic forest region

This dataset includes a set of indices to characterize forest cover and connectivity dynamics, which are used to evaluate various aspects of forest restoration potential for the 5000-ha focal landscapes distributed across a 1,970,000-ha study site in southern Bahia, Brazil for years 1990 and 2002. Refer to the corresponding article for a thorough explanation of the indices included in this dataset. Both restoration and conservation candidates are included

Achieving sustainable water and land use systems in highly developed tropical landscapes

Water quality degradation from human related activities has become a pressing global issue, putting water security at risk around the world. Land use decisions can severely degrade stream water quality, compromising water supply and increasing water treatment costs. Here we examine changes in water quality over 20 years and their association with land use, urbanization, and sewage treatment in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. We also consider how a severe drought in 2014–2015 affected water quality, uncovering the potential impacts of a changing climate on water treatment costs. We analyzed water quality data between 2000 and 2019 from 230 monitoring stations focusing on seven metrics: dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, turbidity, total dissolved solids, and fecal coliforms. We first calculated the number of times that metrics exceeded the legal thresholds and then assessed if metrics were improving or deteriorating over time. Across all stations, a large proportion of stream water samples failed to comply to the legal standards for human consumption for at least one water quality metric. This proportion was highest for total dissolved solids (30.7%) and total phosphorus (42.8%), with fewer samples exceeding the threshold for turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Deteriorating water quality trends over time were prevalent for dissolved solids (33.33%) and total nitrogen (52.45%), while dissolved oxygen exhibited the highest percentage of improving trends across watersheds (43.63%). Moreover, we observed that four of the seven metrics analyzed deteriorated during the 2014–2015 drought. Urbanization and agricultural activity led to deterioration of water quality, while improvement in sewage treatment infrastructure improved water quality across watersheds. The decline in water quality observed in the region, especially during the recent drought, highlights the need to develop land use management strategies to protect water quality and reduce growing costs of water treatment in the state

Data from: A landscape triage approach: combining spatial and temporal dynamics to prioritize restoration and conservation

1. The spatial and temporal dynamics of landscape structure yield ecological constraints that may limit or promote the recovery of functioning habitat within human-modified ecosystems. In planning restoration and conservation measures to optimize outcomes for biodiversity, such constraints should be evaluated at multiple scales. 2. This paper presents a multi-scale methodology based on the concept of triage that incorporates landscape and regional spatial context and temporal dynamics to prioritize restoration and conservation. 3. In applying the framework to a large Brazilian Atlantic forest study site that underwent substantial forest cover changes between 1990 and 2002, our results demonstrate the utility of this framework for navigating between different trade-offs inherent to biodiversity conservation. 4. Landscapes are ranked in accordance with indicators that evaluate the relative urgency of intervention, feasibility of recovery, and importance for broader-scale biotic flows. 5. Synthesis and applications. Efforts to enhance biodiversity through restoration and/or conservation may be hampered when decisions are based exclusively on contemporary landscape structure, and not made through a historical perspective. In making such trade-offs explicit, this framework can aid practitioners in defining the most appropriate set of restoration or conservation strategies given the ecological constraints, biodiversity goals, and available budget