TITLE:
An Approach to Verify Naturalness Loss and Its Relation with Ecosystems Services in Brazilian Cerrado: Implications to Management
AUTHORS:
Fabio Leandro da Silva, Flor Magali Aguiar López, Raphael Machado, Erica Zanardo Oliveira-Andreoli, Ângela Terumi Fushita, Marcela Bianchessi da Cunha-Santino, Irineu Bianchini Júnior
KEYWORDS:
Tropical Forest, Hotspot, Land Use, Landscape Indicators, Watershed
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.10 No.2,
February
24,
2022
ABSTRACT: Recent evidence suggests that Brazilian Cerrado has been largely
converted, mainly due to agribusiness activities and urbanization. Thus, the
present work aimed to obtain the diagnosis of a watershed characterized by the
expansion of sugar cane fields in the Brazilian Cerrado (Southeastern), employing
integrity landscape indicators (Hemeroby, Urbanity Index, Landscape
Vulnerability Index, and Water Quality Index) to verify the landscape
naturalness, and the consequences of these actions to the ecosystem services
provision. Remote sensing data for the years 1998, 2008, and 2018 were employed
to verify the land-use changes in the Feijão River watershed (southeastern
Brazil), as well as a matrix that considers the land use typologies and their
capability to provide ecosystem services. The study area is classified as mixed
land use, with the main categories related to agribusiness (sugar cane, pasture,
bare soil). The Hemeroby and Urban Index denote naturalness declines over the
years, and the observed patterns negatively impact ecosystem service provision.
Landscape Vulnerability Index and Water Quality Index demonstrated that
remaining vegetation cannot effectively retain pollutants, and severe
impairments in the resilience of natural components of key ecosystem service
providers (i.e. water and native vegetation) were observed. The results allowed
the identification of priority areas for recovery and the maintenance of
ecosystem services in agricultural lands.