Search

Aim To propose and compare priority sites for conservation and restoration of woody plants under diverse climate and land use scenarios, considering socio-economic costs, presence of protected areas and distribution of forest remnants. Location The Atlantic Forest Biodiversity Hotspot, Brazil. Methods We used ecological niche modelling to estimate geographical distributions for 2,255 species under current and future climate scenarios, which we analysed in relation to spatially explicit land use projections, maps of forest remnants derived from remote sensing and socio-economic variables for each municipality within the Atlantic Forest region. We identified spatial priorities that complement the current network of protected areas under three different prioritization scenarios: (1) conservation of existing forest remnants only; (2) conservation of remnants followed by restoration of degraded habitat; and (3) unconstrained actions, in which management location is not defined a priori. We compared our results under different levels of land protection, with targets of 10%, 17% and 20% of the Atlantic Forest extent. Results Current forest remnants cover only 12% of the Atlantic Forest, so targets of 17% and 20% were achieved only through active restoration. Targets of 17% and 20% captured most species and represented on average 26%-34% of species' distributions. The spatial pattern of degraded habitats negatively affected representation of biodiversity and implied higher costs and reduced efficiency of planning. We did not observe major differences between conservation prioritizations based on contrasting climate change scenarios. Main conclusions Protection of forest remnants alone will not suffice to safeguard woody plant species under climate and land use changes; therefore, restoration actions are urgently needed in the Atlantic Forest. With integrated management actions and multicriterion nationwide planning, reaching the 17% of land protection of Aichi biodiversity targets will constitute an important step towards protecting Atlantic Forest biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and related elemental ratios, as well as and nitrogen and phosphorus stocks were investigated in 17 paired sites and in a regional survey encompassing more than 100 pasture soils in the Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, and Pampa, the three important biomes of Brazil. In the paired sites, elemental soil concentrations and stocks were determined in native vegetation, pastures and crop-livestock systems (CPS). Overall, there were significant differences in soil element concentrations and ratios between different land uses, especially in the surface soil layers. Carbon and nitrogen contents were lower, while phosphorus contents were higher in the pasture and CPS soils than in forest soils. Additionally, soil stoichiometry has changed with changes in land use. The soil C:N ratio was lower in the forest than in the pasture and CPS soils; and the carbon and nitrogen to available phosphorus ratio (PME) decreased from the forest to the pasture to the CPS soils. The average native vegetation soil nitrogen stocks at 0-10, 0-30 and 0- 60 cm soil depth layers were equal to approximately 2.3, 5.2, 7.3Mgha-1, respectively. 15 In the paired sites, nitrogen loss in the CPS systems and pasture soils were similar and equal to 0.6, 1.3 and 1.5Mgha-1 at 0-10, 0-30 and 0-60 cm soil depths, respectively. In the regional pasture soil survey, nitrogen soil stocks at 0-10 and 0-30 soil layers were equal to 1.6 and 3.9Mgha-1, respectively, and lower than the stocks found in the native vegetation of paired sites. On the other hand, the soil phosphorus stocks 20 were higher in the CPS and pasture of the paired sites than in the soil of the original vegetation. The original vegetation soil phosphorus stocks were equal to 11, 22, and 43 kg ha-1 in the three soil depths, respectively. The soil phosphorus stocks increased in the CPS systems to 30, 50, and 63 kg ha-, respectively, and in the pasture pair sites to 22, 47, and 68 kg ha-1, respectively. In the regional pasture survey, the soil phosphorus stocks were lower than in the native vegetation, and equal to 9 and 15 kg ha-1 at 0-10 and 0-30 depth layer. The findings of this paper illustrate that land-use changes that are currently common in Brazil alter soil concentrations, stocks and elemental ratios of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. These changes could have an impact on the subsequent vegetation, decreasing soil carbon, increasing nitrogen limitation, but alleviating soil phosphorus deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the contexts of globalization and the Atlantic Forest ecoregion, I present a multiscale analysis of anthropogenic landscape dynamics in the Florianópolis city-region, Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Drawing on field research conducted between 2000 and 2004 and a review of the literature, I examined Brazilian demographic and agricultural census data for the period of 1970 to 1995-1996. I hypothesized that economic restructuring, new institutional arrangements, and the valuation of environmental amenities and ecosystem services have contributed to forest recovery trends and thus a forest transition in the city-region. My results indicate that along with rapid urbanization, in-migration, socioeconomic polarization, and segregation, the city-region has experienced the contraction of private agricultural land area, expansion of protected areas, recovery of forests, and conversion of coastal plain ecosystems to built environments. Future analyses of forest transition dynamics should consider the spatial configurations of socioeconomic inequality in city-regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Most of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil occurs in fragments of various sizes. Previous studies indicate that forest fragmentation affects fruit-feeding butterflies. Conservation strategies that seek to preserve organisms that are distributed in high-fragmented biomes need to understand the spatial distribution of these organisms across the landscape. In view of the importance of understanding the fauna of these forest remnants, the objective of the present work is to investigate the extent to which the diversity of this group varies across spatial scales ranging from within-forest patches to between landscapes. Location South America, south-eastern Brazil, São Paulo State. Methods We used bait traps to sample fruit feeding butterflies at 50 points in 10 fragments in two different landscapes during a period of 12 months. Total species richness and Shannon index were partitioned additively in diversity at trap level, and beta diversity was calculated among traps, among forest patches, and between landscapes. We used permutation tests to compare these values to the expected ones under the null hypothesis that beta diversity is only a random sampling effect. Results There was significant beta diversity at the smallest scale examined; however, the significance at higher scales depends on the diversity measurement used. Beta diversity with Shannon index was smaller than expected by chance among fragments, whereas species richness was not. Among landscapes, only beta diversity in richness was higher than expected by chance. Main conclusions The results observed occur because there is great variability in species composition among forest patches in the same landscape, changing this diversity even though the communities are formed from the same pool of species. At the largest scale evaluated (between landscapes), these pattern changes and differences in beta diversity in richness were detectable. This difference is probably caused by the presence of rare species. Thus, a conservation strategy that seeks to preserve as many species as possible per unit of area in high-fragmented biomes should give priority to protecting fragments in different landscapes, rather than more fragments in the same landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Biology is the property of Instituto Internacional de Ecologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Conservation in densely settled biodiversity hotspots often requires setting up reserve networks that maintain sufficient contiguous habitat to support viable species populations. Because it is difficult to secure landholder compliance with a tightly constrained reserve network design, attention has shifted to voluntary incentive mechanisms, such as purchase of conservation easements by reverse auction or through a fixed-price offer. These mechanisms carry potential advantages of transparency, simplicity, and low cost. However, uncoordinated individual response to these incentives has been assumed incompatible with the conservation goal of viability, which depends on contiguous habitat and biodiversity representation. We model such incentives for southern Bahia in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the biologically richest and most threatened global biodiversity hotspots. Here, forest cover is spatially autocorrelated and associated with depressed land values, a situation that may be characteristic of longsettled areas with forests fragmented by agriculture. We find that in this situation, a voluntary incentive system can yield a reserve network characterized by large, viable patches of contiguous forest, and representation of subregions with distinct vegetation types and biotic assemblages, without explicit planning for those outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]