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Caatinga is a typical Brazilian biome facing severe threats despite its ecological and socio-economic importance. Conservation strategies are essential in protecting ecosystems and ensuring natural resource sustainability. Mata da Pimenteira State Park (PEMP), launched in 2012, is an example of such a strategy. The current study aims to use orbital remote sensing techniques to assess human impacts on changes in land use and land cover (LULC) after the establishment of PEMP in the semi-arid region known as Caatinga, in Pernambuco State. The effects of this unit on vegetation preservation were specifically analyzed based on using data from the MapBiomas Brasil project to assess trends in LULC, both in and around PEMP, from 2002 to 2020. Man–Kendall and Pettitt statistical tests were applied to identify significant changes, such as converting forest areas into pastures and agricultural plantations. Trends of the loss and gain of LULC were observed over the years, such as forest areas' conversion into pasture and vice versa, mainly before and after PEMP implementation. These findings highlight the importance of developing conservation measures and planning to help protecting the Caatinga, which is a vital biome in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding climate change and land use impacts is crucial for mitigating environmental degradation. This study assesses the environmental vulnerability of the Doce River Basin for 2050, considering future climate change and land use and land cover (LULC) scenarios. Factors including slope, elevation, relief dissection, precipitation, temperature, pedology, geology, urban distance, road distance, and LULC were evaluated using multicriteria analysis. Regional climate models Eta-HadGEM2-ES and Eta-MIROC5 under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emission scenarios were employed. The Land Change Modeler tool simulated 2050 LULC changes and hypothetical reforestation of legal reserve (RL) areas. Combining two climate and two LULC scenarios resulted in four future vulnerability scenarios. Projections indicate an over 300 mm reduction in average annual precipitation and an up to 2 °C temperature increase from 2020 to 2050. Scenario 4 (RCP 8.5 and LULC for 2050 with reforested RLs) showed the greatest basin area in the lowest vulnerability classes, while scenario 3 (RCP 4.5 and LULC for 2050) exhibited more high-vulnerability areas. Despite the projected relative improvement in environmental vulnerability by 2050 due to reduced rainfall, the complexity of associated relationships must be considered. These results contribute to mitigating environmental damage and adapting to future climatic conditions in the Doce River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Hare (Lepus europaeus), like many invasive species, have declined in much of their native range but flourished in non-native regions (e.g. South America). Previous studies suggested that loss of farmland heterogeneity due to agricultural intensification is the main driver of the species decline in its native range in Europe. Yet, little is known about the role of spatial and temporal heterogeneity and land cover types as predictors of European Hare local abundance in Neotropical agricultural landscapes. We hypothesized that spatial and temporal heterogeneity, rather than land cover types, would be the most influential predictors of hare local abundance in intensively managed Neotropical agricultural landscapes. We sampled 55 sites embedded within agricultural-dominated landscapes from southeastern Brazil with camera traps and transect surveys. Sites were selected along an uncorrelated gradient of native vegetation cover and compositional heterogeneity. We estimated the relative abundance of European hares using an occupancy model that accounts for imperfect detection of species induced primarily by variation in local abundance. We found that land cover diversity, sugarcane, and savanna cover were the best predictors of European Hare relative abundance. Hare relative abundance estimates were low and did not vary dramatically among sites, suggesting that this invader has not yet attained high local density in our study region. European Hare attained the highest relative abundance in agricultural landscapes that locally combine higher compositional heterogeneity, including sugarcane crops, and little to no native savanna. Areas with these combined features may represent the most important nascent foci, fostering ongoing northward spread of this invasive species in the Neotropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Of 414.5 million livers analyzed; 224,872 cattle were infected with F. hepatica. • Infected livers were registered in 194 Brazilian municipalities in 2002, and 747 in 2020. • There was a reduction in forest areas and an increase in cattle livers infected with F. hepatica. • Fasciola hepatica was introduced to the Cerrado, Pantanal, and Amazon Forest biomes. • Significant territorial dispersion of infected cattle with F. hepatica was observed. Fasciolosis is caused by parasites of the genus Fasciola, affecting animals and humans worldwide. In South America, the disease is a result of infection with Fasciola hepatica and although animal infections are more frequently reported, the full extent of the impact on human health due to underdiagnosis remains uncertain. This study analyzed changes in land use and the distribution of F. hepatica in bovine livers in Brazil over 18 years. Data on land use and land cover were collected from the Mapbiomas Project. Data on 414,481,963 slaughtered cattle and condemned livers due to F. hepatica infection were obtained from 4,433 municipalities. Joinpoint analysis was used to study the time series, and the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model was utilized to explore the behavior of F. hepatica infection. In the North, pasture areas significantly increased (P = 0.000001), while forested areas decreased (P = 0.000001). The midwestern and northern regions concentrated the highest number (>290 million) of cattle slaughtered in Brazil. More than 2 million bovine livers were infected by F. hepatica. The infected cattle originated from 194 municipalities in 2002, increasing to 747 in 2020. We consider that the changes in land use and intense cattle transportation may have caused the expansion of F. hepatica. The SIR model analyzed the spread of the disease looking at all six biomes: Caatinga, Amazon Forest, Cerrado, Pantanal, Atlantic Forest, and Pampa. Moreover, this infection not only threatens the health of animals but is also a major concern to biodiversity and vulnerable human communities in South America. Emblematic biomes such as the Amazon basin already face challenges with logging, desertification, and loss of biodiversity. Therefore, strategies for mitigating infection should include controlling illegal pasture areas, establishing health inspections of animal transport, quarantine of newly arrived animals, and livestock zoning, as well as clear One Health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil water infiltration is an important component of the hydrological cycle, and it is best evaluated when the raindrop impacts the ground surface. For this reason, it is affected by changes in land use and land cover and by the characteristics and physical–hydric properties of the soil. This study aimed to evaluate soil water infiltration in areas occupied by annual crops (soybean and corn) and pastures in two watersheds of the Teles Pires River-MT, using simulated rainfall, physical models, and principal component analysis. Infiltration rates were evaluated based on simulated rainfall with an average intensity of 75 mm h−1, with four repetitions per region (upper, middle, and lower) of the hydrographic sub-basins of the Caiabi and Renato rivers, and soil use with cover, without cover, and disturbed. Soil tillage provided higher water infiltration rates into the soil, especially in pasture areas in the two hydrographic sub-basins. There were significant adjustments to the mathematical models based on the infiltration rate data for all land use and land cover conditions. The soil attributes that most interfered with the infiltration rate were microporosity, bulk density, and total porosity in the crop areas of the middle Caiabi and microporosity, clay content, total porosity, and silt content in the areas farming at the source of the Renato River. The Horton and Philip models presented the best adjustments in the hydrographic sub-basins of the Caiabi and Renato Rivers, which are recommended for estimating the water infiltration rate into the soil in different uses, coverages, and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to summarize approaches and methods used abroad for estimating carbon emissions resulting from land-use changes on global and regional levels. To understand the place of this topic in modern geoecology, an analysis of bibliometric indicators has been carried out based on the Scopus abstract and citation database. There has been a significant increase in publications on the research results of carbon emissions and absorption under the influence of land use around the world since the early 2000s, with over 200 articles currently published per year. The leading countries in terms of publication activity include China, the United States, Germany, Great Britain, and Brazil, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences being the leader among organizations. The present-day research into carbon balance changes under the impact of land-use change is based on detecting changes in land cover in the spatiotemporal aspect using advanced geoinformation technologies and on modeling carbon fluxes through the use of precise data consistent with the approaches 2–3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methodology. It has been established that most of the studies by leading scientific centers have common algorithm and stages. This article provides a description of these stages, namely, the methods and specific tools used, and it identifies their advantages and disadvantages. The general research algorithm includes, at the first stage, an assessment of the dynamics of land-use/land-cover change for different time spans, then carbon balance modeling as a result of land-use changes, and the development of regional policy measures on this basis. National nuances in the application of methods and initial data are also revealed (cases of China, Brazil, etc.). It is concluded that it is necessary to further improve methods in the field of accuracy of land-use/land-cover classifications and timeliness of detecting its dynamics, as well as the assessment of carbon stocks. These factors determine specific practical actions in the field of regional planning and the development of offset measures under the climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analytical treatment of some of the primary environmental controls on landslides has demonstrated that the landslide size distribution in the Paraitinga River basin, southeastern Brazil, are influenced by parameters such as triggering rainfall, lithology, slope gradient, upslope area, and land cover. Through the mapping of the surface of rupture of 1102 landslides triggered during an intense rainfall event in the summer of 2009/2010 and the fitting of a probability density function, we have discovered that the probability of large landslides occurring was significantly disturbed by lithology, slope gradients > 0.56 m/m, and triggering rainfall exceeding 180 mm within 48 h. In contrast, the probability density function for small landslides was affected by slope gradients less than < 0.31 m/m, rainfall less than 120 mm within 48 h, and higher values of upslope area. Moreover, the area of landslides in the probability peaks substantially increased when lithology consisted of schist or quartzite and in forested areas. These findings corroborate previous studies that establish a relationship between landslide size distributions and triggering processes, as well as the mechanics of landslides based on stability models, indicating a variation in triggering processes between the two segments of the curve: rollover (small landslides) and tail (large landslides). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters caused by rainfall extremes represent social challenges in several sectors, especially in climate change scenarios. Along with changes in land use and land cover, this relationship may become more complex. Thus, the present study aimed to detect recent trends in the pattern of rainfall indicators and associate them with records of natural disasters and the evolution of changes in land use and land cover for the state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil. Daily rainfall data from 77 rain gauge stations from 1970 to 2018 were used to analyze climate trends in different rainfall indicators obtained using the RClimDex software. Records of natural disasters from 1991 to 2020 in the state of Espírito Santo were gathered from the Brazilian Integrated Disaster Information System. Additionally, land use and land cover data from 1985 and 2019 were also used. The Mann–Kendall (MK) test and the Sen slope were used to detect and quantify trends. In the Litoral Norte Espírito-santense and Noroeste Espírito-santense mesoregions of the State, trends of drought intensification are expected mainly in the regions further north. Associated with the great recent agricultural expansion in the region, this trend is concerning. The Central Espírito-santense and Sul Espírito-santense mesoregions tend to become wetter, which explains the recent increase in floods and heavy rainfall. No significant trends were found in the other regions studied. The approach adopted in this study has the potential to assist decision-making, implement mitigation and/or adaptation measures, and reduce the impacts of natural disasters in different regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triatomines are the vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease. The study aimed to evaluate the association between sociodemographic and environmental factors, and changes in land use and cover, with the occurrence and abundance of triatomines by census sectors in an endemic municipality of northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. The study was conducted in Montes Claros, located in the north of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The entomological data used in the study were collected by active surveillance in the rural area from 2015 to 2019 and by passive surveillance in the urban area from 2009 to 2019. Data on sociodemographic and environmental factors and changes in land use and land cover were obtained from the urban and rural census sectors. A total of 1404 triatomines, belonging to eight species, were captured in domiciles in the rural area (2015–2019) and 277 triatomines in domiciles in the urban area (2009–2019) of the municipality of Montes Claros. The variables the number of domiciles, household economic income, pavement, NDVI, deforestation, unchanged, and anthropic proved to be positively associated with the occurrence and/or number of triatomines in census sectors, within the models. The occurrence of triatomines in the domestic environment of the municipality of Montes Claros should be considered a public health problem, as it suggests a potential risk of establishment and transmission of T. cruzi to domestic animals, farm animals, and humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their importance to conservation strategies, baseline data on species distribution and abundance are lacking for many primates. Discovered 30 years ago, the blond titi (Callicebus barbarabrownae) is considered Critically Endangered. The first assessments in 2004-2006 sampled 126, 1-km radius areas using interviews, sightings, and playing back loud calls to confirm the presence of this species in 37 areas, suggesting a minimum population of 260 individuals in the Caatinga biome, Brazil. Ten years later, from 2015 to 2017, we reassessed the species' distribution range using playback points to survey 224, 1-km radius areas, including 34 occurrence areas from 2004-2006. We counted the number of responding or sighted groups and individuals in each area. We also measured land cover change from 2005 to 2016 in the species' geographic range. We recorded blond titis in 92 areas, including 28 of the 34 areas occupied in 2004-2006, and three protected areas. We found 194 groups and at least 404 individuals. From 2005 to 2016, forest cover decreased by 11% and urban area increased by 67%. The higher number of occupied areas and individuals we found in 2015-2017 are likely due to the higher sampling effort employed and higher detectability of playback surveys compared to interviews. Although the blond titi occurs in more areas and in higher numbers than previously known, threats related to land use are increasing. We suggest the use of improved observational (e.g., playback) and analytical methods to enhance knowledge of primate distribution and population size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Understanding the relationship between land-use and land-cover changes, the ecosystem services (ES) offered, and the farmers' perception about these services is essential for designing adequate strategies in the management and conservation of natural resources. Therefore, this research aims to describe the evolution of the land use and land cover, and the farmers' perceptions of ES at Diamante Negro Jutaí settlement, in the Monção municipality, Maranhão state, Eastern Amazon, Brazil. The data were collected through a mapping of use units and land cover, and 130 structured questionnaires. Farmers recognize ES as highly important for their well-being and livelihood. Food (agriculture and livestock), fish, fresh water, and lakes were perceived by farmers as highly important. Fishing, however, is the most relevant ES. In contrast, it is also the most threatened because of land-use alteration. In the period from 1995 to 2015, overall natural ground cover was reduced. Water bodies were the most highly affected with an 85 percent decrease in relation to the total area of the analysis period. The decrease in secondary forest areas (4.3 percent) and water bodies are reflections of climate change, which also has a direct impact on forms of use. Farmers' perceptions of ES can be used to formulate policies for conservation of natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the trends in land use and land cover (LULC) is crucial for modeling streamflow and sediment yield, particularly in hydrological basins. This study examined the impact of LULC on the dynamics of streamflow and sediment yield within a humid tropical basin of the Atlantic Forest biome in Brazil, focusing on the period from 2000 to 2016. Changes in LULC were analyzed using annual MapBiomas data products for the same period. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was deployed to simulate streamflow and sediment yield based on LULC changes. To investigate temporal trends in LULC, a suite of non-parametric statistical tests, including the Mann–Kendall, Pettitt, and Sen's slope estimator tests, was employed. Ecological diversity indices such as Shannon–Weaver, Simpson, and Pielou were applied to assess forest fragmentation, along with the Forest Fragmentation Index. The results revealed a growing trend in urban and sugarcane areas, coupled with a decline in dense vegetation, mangroves, and other forms of dense vegetation. With regard to the correlation between land uses and hydrological variables, the findings indicate minor variations in hydrological balance, attributable to the not-so-significant changes among the studied land-use scenarios, except for sediment yield estimates, which showed more considerable alterations. Notably, the estimates for 2000 and 2013–2016 were the most divergent. In a broader scientific context, this research conclusively establishes that the incorporation of dynamic LULC data into the SWAT model augments the precision and robustness of simulations pertaining to agricultural watersheds, thereby enabling a more comprehensive hydrological characterization of the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale land use/land cover changes have occurred in Mato Grosso State (hereafter MT), Brazil, following the introduction of extensive mechanized agriculture and pastoral activities since the 1980s. Author investigated what kind of agro-pastoral activities which are both cattle ranching and top five crops (soybean, sugarcane, corn, cotton and rice) that are closely related to land use change on lands experiencing conversion land use change (such as deforestation and the increase in deeply anthropogenically influenced areas) at each municipal district in MT. Then, this study identifies the volume of exports including contribution ratio by municipal districts where land use changed due to agro-pastoral activities. The patterns of vegetation change indicated that cattle ranching, corn, cotton, rice croplands in the northwest, and soybean and sugarcane fields in the central areas are the main contributors to deforestation. It is shown that land use change due to soybean or corn cultivation occurs mainly in the west and the southeast, respectively. Corn cultivation is associated with a greater increase in anthropogenically influenced areas than soybean cultivation. The municipal districts that export each agro-pastoral product with land use change are limited. Exports of soybeans, corn, and cotton in the municipal districts associated with deforestation had increased dramatically after experienced land use change. For example, Sapezal, which has experienced deforestation, was the only municipal district associated with export of corn to only Switzerland. Since 2007, the number of export partners has increased to 56 countries with the export volume increased 2300 times. These findings highlight the overall non-sustainability of environmental resource development activities in MT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass burning (BB) emissions negatively impact the biosphere and human lives. Orbital remote sensing and modelling are used to estimate BB emissions on regional to global scales, but these estimates are subject to errors related to the parameters, data, and methods available. For example, emission factors (mass emitted by species during BB per mass of dry matter burned) are based on land use and land cover (LULC) classifications that vary considerably across products. In this work, we evaluate how BB emissions vary in the PREP-CHEM-SRC emission estimator tool (version 1.8.3) when it is run with original LULC data from MDC12Q1 (collection 5.1) and newer LULC data from MapBiomas (collection 6.0). We compare the results using both datasets in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes during the 2002–2020 time series. A major reallocation of emissions occurs within Brazil when using the MapBiomas product, with emissions decreasing by 788 Gg (−1.91% year−1) in the Amazon and emissions increasing by 371 Gg (2.44% year−1) in the Cerrado. The differences identified are mostly associated with the better capture of the deforestation process in the Amazon and forest formations in Northern Cerrado with the MapBiomas product, as emissions in forest-related LULCs decreased by 5260 Gg in the Amazon biome and increased by 1676 Gg in the Cerrado biome. This is an important improvement to PREP-CHEM-SRC, which could be considered the tool to build South America's official BB emission inventory and to provide a basis for setting emission reduction targets and assessing the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way water resources behave in the face of changes in land use are essential for managing a watershed. The Ibicuí river basin, located in the center of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has great agricultural potential and peculiar characteristics regarding its hydrological regime. Changes in land use and land cover with the purpose of expanding economic activities in this area can generate major impacts on the flow regimes of this watershed. This study shows an analysis of the influence of land use and land cover changes on the flow regime in the Ibicuí river basin from the large-basin hydrological model (MGB-IPH), considering maps of land use history and vegetation cover in the study area. The results were used to analyze the changes in the maximum and minimum annual and monthly average flows. The efficiency of the model was evaluated by the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient (between 0.636 and 0.801) for peak flows and by the Nash-Sutcliffe log (between 0.682 and 0.863) for recession flows, indicating high correlation and low volume error (- 0.45 to - 8.20%). The greatest change in land use was the forest coverage reduction associated with agriculture land use. As a result, an increase in the average monthly flows and in the reference flow Q90 was verified. In some sub-basins, a significant modification in the reference Q90 flow and maximum flow was verified. The Mann-Whitney test showed that the results were accurate. The results indicated that changes in forest coverage and land use have an impact in the flow regime in the Ibicuí Watershed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Biogeographic regionalization represents abstractions of the organisation of life on Earth, and can provide a large‐scaled framework for health management and planning. We aimed at determining a biogeographic regionalization for human infectious diseases in Brazil, and at investigating non‐mutually exclusive hypotheses predicting the observed regions. Methods: Based on the spatial distributions of 12 infectious diseases with mandatory notification (SINAN database, 2007–2020, n = 15,839), we identified regions through a clustering procedure based on beta‐diversity turnover. The analysis was repeated 1000 times by randomly shuffling the rows (0.5° cells) in the original matrix. We evaluated the relative importance of variables using multinomial logistic regression models: contemporary climate (temperature and precipitation), human activity (population density and geographic accessibility), land cover (11 classes), and the full model (all variables). We refined the geographic boundaries of each cluster by polygonising their kernel densities to identify clusters' core zones. Results: The two‐cluster solution showed the best correspondence between disease ranges and clusters geographic limits. The largest cluster occurred with more density in the central and northeastern regions, while the smaller and complementary cluster occurred in the south and southeastern region. The best model for explaining the regionalization was the full model, supporting the 'complex association hypothesis'. The heatmap showed a NE‐S directional display of the cluster's densities, and core zones showed geographic correspondence with tropical + arid (NE) versus temperate (S) climates. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that there is a discernible latitudinal pattern in the turnover of disease in Brazil, and this phenomenon is associated with an intricate interplay between contemporary climate, population activity, and land cover. This generalised biogeographic pattern may offer the earliest insights into the geographic arrangement of diseases in the country. We suggested that the latitudinal pattern could be adopted as a nationwide framework for geographic vaccine allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing is valuable for estimating aboveground biomass (AGB) stocks. However, its application in agricultural and pasture areas is limited compared with forest areas. This study quantifies AGB in agriculture–pasture mosaics within Brazil's Campo Maior Complex (CMC). The methodology employs remote sensing cloud processing and utilizes an estimator to incorporate vegetation indices. The results reveal significant changes in biomass values among land use and land cover classes over the past ten years, with notable variations observed in forest plantation, pasture, sugar cane, and soybean areas. The estimated AGB values range from 0 to 20 Mg.ha−1 (minimum), 53 to 419 Mg.ha−1 (maximum), and 19 to 57 Mg.ha−1 (mean). In Forest formation areas, AGB values range from approximately 0 to 278 Mg.ha−1, with an average annual value of 56.44 Mg.ha−1. This study provides valuable insights for rural landowners and government officials in managing the semiarid territory and environment. It aids in decision making regarding agricultural management, irrigation and fertilization practices, agricultural productivity, land use and land cover changes, biodiversity loss, soil degradation, conservation strategies, the identification of priority areas for environmental restoration, and the optimization of resource utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to develop a new method to map Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) classes in the São Paulo State, Brazil, using Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data. The novelty of the proposed method consists of selecting the images based on the spectral and temporal characteristics of the LULC classes. First, we defined the six classes to be mapped in the year 2020 as forest, forest plantation, water bodies, urban areas, agriculture, and pasture. Second, we visually analyzed their variability spectral characteristics over the year. Then, we pre-processed these images to highlight each LULC class. For the classification, the Random Forest algorithm available on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform was utilized individually for each LULC class. Afterward, we integrated the classified maps to create the final LULC map. The results revealed that forest areas are primarily concentrated in the eastern region of São Paulo, predominantly on steeper slopes, accounting for 19% of the study area. On the other hand, pasture and agriculture dominated 73% of all São Paulo's landscape, reaching 39% and 34%, respectively. The overall accuracy of the classification achieved 89.10%, while producer and user accuracies were greater than 84.20% and 76.62%, respectively. To validate the results, we compared our findings with the MapBiomas Project classification, obtaining an overall accuracy of 85.47%. Therefore, our method demonstrates its potential to minimize classification errors and offers the advantage of facilitating post-classification editing for individual mapped classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation is the major input of the hydrological cycle in tropical regions. Changes in the spatial and temporal patterns of precipitation should be investigated in order to provide in-time information for both water and land use planning. Climate and land use changes have been influencing modification in the water cycle, demanding adaptations and increasing the vulnerability of water-dependent systems. This study investigated spatial and temporal changes in precipitation patterns in the Paranapanema River Basin (PPRB), Brazil. The PPRB region is an important agricultural and hydroelectric power generation hub and has been suffering from water crises in recent years, and more intensely in the last 5–10 years. The analysis used remote sensing precipitations data from September 2000 to August 2021 (summing up twenty-one hydrological years) at 0.1° resolution. Exploratory Spatial and Temporal Data Analysis (ESTDA) were applied to verify spatial local autocorrelation and hot/cold spots clusters, and temporal trends, homogeneity, and change points in the time series at Hydrological Planning Unit (HPU) scale level. The significant results were discussed based on statistical tests and land use cover change data. There is a strong presence of precipitation spatial patterns in the PPRB. Also, the PPRB presented modifications in the precipitation regime over the analyzed period, with significant change points around 2015—2017. Further monitoring is recommended in order to confirm these results in the long term, however, the provided information can already be used as an award to local and regional water bodies installed in the river basin, supporting informative water management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical dry areas in Brazil cover approximately 1 million km2 and are significant contributors to soil carbon (C) loss to the atmosphere. This study is part of a large project that has evaluated the effects of land cover type variation on chemical and biological attributes in a reference area of the Brazilian semi-arid region. Five different land cover types were selected: native forest, Tabebuia alba (Ridley) Sandwith, Anadenanthera falcata Benth forest, secondary scrub regeneration and agricultural no-irrigation maize. Different types of land use influenced soil variables mainly in the superficial layer. Soil organic carbon (SOC) reduced to 73% of native forest in agricultural no-irrigation maize and 76% in secondary scrub regene for dry seasons. Reforestation management with T. alba or A. falcata showed positive effects on soil quality with high levels of SOC and labile fractions in both the dry and rainy seasons. Our data affirm the importance of more sustainable management practices for soils under dry tropical forest since these areas exhibit slow recovery of SOC and microbiological attributes. Thus, we recommend reforestation of dry tropical areas with T. alba and A. falcata aiming to improve the health and sustainability of degraded soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between land use and cover and a basin hydrological regime are complex and dynamics. The identification of trends and changes in rainfall and flow regimes in a region is relevant in water resources planning and management so that environmental, economic and social adversities are avoided. Thus, this study aims to identify possible trends in the historical series of rainfall and fluviometric stations in Rio das Mortes basin, Minas Gerais, Brazil, as well as to relate the modifications in the flow rate behaviour due to changes in land use and cover in the basin between the years of 1985 and 2017. For that, hydrological data were used from the Ibituruna-MG river station and 12 rainfall stations and orbital images from Landsat-5 and Sentinel satellites. Flow rate and precipitation behavior were performed using the nonparametric Mann-Kendall test and the Pettitt's test, while the land use and cover classification was performed in an eCognition Developer® 64 environment. Significant trends were observed in the average of total annual rainfall series and decreasing trends in the average of monthly flow rate series of lowest runoff over the years 1925 to 2014. There were changes in land use and cover in the studied region, however, these were not significant enough to modify the hydrological regime of Rio das Mortes basin during the analysed period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Caatinga is a seasonally dry tropical forest endemic to Brazil and with high biodiversity. However, a large part of this natural wealth is still unknown and vulnerable to environmental threats, especially the desertification process. In the State of Paraíba, one of the areas most threatened by desertification is the Seridó region. In this sense, this study aimed to analyze the anthropogenic pressures under this biome in the Seridó Occidental microregion, using indicators such as soil cover, suppression of primary and secondary vegetation, as well as the production of firewood and charcoal. The data used were obtained from three different databases (Bdia, Mapbiomas and Sidra), analyzed separately, and later together through principal component analysis (PCA). The results showed considerable differences in terms of land cover between the municipalities in this micro-region, as well as the predominance of areas with agriculture and cattle raising and wooded Steppe Savannah. The presence of vast areas with pasture and with agricultural-pasture mosaics was observed. A temporal reduction in the suppression of primary vegetation and an increase in the suppression of secondary vegetation were also observed. The highest firewood extraction and charcoal production values were observed at the beginning of the sampling period. The PCA highlighted the significant associations between the suppression of primary vegetation with the production of firewood and charcoal and the presence of mosaics pasture-agriculture. The suppression of secondary vegetation was associated with the opening of pasture areas. The results together demonstrate the local susceptibility to the intensification of the desertification process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon region comprises the largest tropical forest on the planet and is responsible for absorbing huge amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, changes in land use and cover have contributed to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2, and in endangered indigenous lands and protected areas in the region. The objective of this study was to detect changes in CO2 emissions and removals associated with land use and land cover changes in the Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) through the analysis of multispectral satellite images from 2009 to 2019. The Gross Primary Production (GPP) and CO2Flux variables were estimated by the MODIS sensor onboard Terra and Aqua satellite, representing carbon absorption by vegetation during the photosynthesis process. Atmospheric CO2 concentration was estimated from the GOSAT satellite. The variables GPP and CO2Flux showed the effective flux of carbon in the BLA to atmosphere, which were weakly correlated with precipitation (r = 0.191 and 0.133). The forest absorbed 211.05 TgC annually but, due to its partial conversion to other land uses, the loss of 135,922.34 km2 of forest area resulted in 5.82 TgC less carbon being absorbed. Pasture and agriculture, which comprise the main land conversions, increased by 100,340.39 km2 and absorbed 1.32 and 3.19 TgC less, and emitted close to twice more, than forest in these areas. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased from 2.2 to 2.8 ppm annually in BLA, with hotspots observed in the southeast Amazonia, and CO2 capture by GPP showed an increase over the years, mainly after 2013, in the north and west of the BLA. This study brings to light the carbon dynamics, by GPP and CO2Flux models, as related to the land use and land cover in one of the biggest world carbon reservoirs, the Amazon, which is also important to fulfillment of international agreements signed by Brazil to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and for biodiversity conservation and other ecosystem services in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation estimation is a challenging task, especially in regions where its spatial distribution is irregular and highly variable. This study evaluated the spatial distribution of annual rainfall in a semiarid Brazilian basin under different regimes and its impact on land use and land cover dynamics. Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS) records and observed data from 40 weather stations over a time series of 55 years were used, in addition to the Standardized Precipitation Index. Spatiotemporal analysis was carried out based on geostatistics. Remote sensing images were also interpreted for different rainfall regimes using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index. The Gaussian semivariogram model best represented the rainfall spatial structure, showing strong spatial dependence. Results indicated that rainfall amount in the basin significantly increases with elevation, as expected. There is high variation in the dynamics of water storage that can threaten water security in the region. Our findings point out that the application of geostatistics for mapping both the annual precipitation and the Standardized Precipitation Index provides a powerful framework to support hydrological analysis, as well as land use and land cover management in semiarid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work performs an analysis of the spatial pattern of the coffee harvested area in the Rio de Janeiro state between 1988 and 2018. To relate changes in land cover and land use with the coffee land abandonment, geographically weighted regressions (GWR) were adopted with the rates of change in forest and pasture cover, and also with changes in the size of the cattle herd. The coffee-crop area evolution identifies three behaviors: the concentration of planted area in the northwest, with constant growth after the 1990s; a remaining area in the mountainous region; and the abandonment of coffee farms in the south. Although bivariate models can't explain the changes in land cover and land use, geographically weighted regressions point to a trend of replacing coffee cover with pasturelands in the south region of the state, while eventual changes for forest cover are more likely in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Biotropica is the property of Wiley-Blackwell 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.)

Effects of natural processes on community building and the modification of nature by man's hands are an intrinsic part of the co-production of the landscape between man and nature. However, the interactions of this co-production have scarcely been analyzed. Based on data from the MapBiomas project, an analysis of the variation in land use and cover over 35 years in the Quilombola São Roque and Mãe dos Homens communities in southern Brazil was carried out. The sociogeomorphological units in the study area were established, and its geomorphological units and social units were analyzed and described. There is a prevalence of more than 50% of forest formation. Cluster analysis classified the analyzed variables into two groups, with the first corresponding to forest and grassland formations associated with more natural landscape features. The second group is formed by anthropogenic activities. Social units including traditional communities seem to be more related to the stimulation of forest formation. The action of conservation units influences the variation in land use and land cover. There is a Supplementary Material which explains abbreviations concerning the manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the temporal behaviour of soil moisture in different environments is essential considering its importance in hydrological processes. Few studies have addressed its dynamics in a subtropical climate, in view of temperature variations throughout the year and well-distributed precipitation events which are characteristics that affect the behaviour of soil moisture over time. The temporal stability of soil moisture was investigated in two sets of data collected from a small watershed in southern Brazil. We used multiple linear regression (MLR) to evaluate whether points with greater temporal stability contributed as predictor variables of the models for estimating soil moisture. Soil moisture was monitored in the superficial (0–10 cm) and subsurface (10–20 cm) layers at 39 points with variations in soil characteristics and topography. To assess the temporal stability of soil moisture, two statistical techniques and MLR models were used to identify the topographic, climatological and soil property variables, as well as those that influenced the dynamics of the soil water content. The results showed that the factors of slope, terrain elevation, microporosity and evapotranspiration were determinants for the strong performance of the models, and that the inclusion of points with greater temporal stability helped to improve the estimate in certain datasets. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that the set of results that express topographic factors, land use and cover, along with the soil physical properties should be considered to characterise the temporal stability of soil moisture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performing field studies to assess soil degradation is expensive and timeconsuming. Estimates made by numerical models are, therefore, usually preferred by many researchers and professionals that work on this subject. The present study primarily aims to assess the potential soil degradation (PSD) in the state of Sergipe, Brazil, in the years 2000 and 2019, by employing the fuzzy logic in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. The proposed model explores cause-effect relationships between specific variables that are known to affect the PSD, based on membership functions and the Fuzzy Gamma Operator (FGO) applied to data relative to geology, geomorphology, declivity, hypsometry, pedology, precipitation, erodibility, enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and land use. Our results show that, among these factors, the ones that most contributed to degradation were geology, geomorphology, pedology and precipitation. However, proper attention should be paid to variables susceptible to changes in the human timescale, such as precipitation, land use and cover and, consequently, the EVI, which were found to be important contributors to the observed increase in PSD along the studied timespan. Of those, especially, land use and cover, as it is a variable closely related to human activities. The cartographic products resulting from this work are also successful in indicating the regions that exhibit the most and the least important factors with respect to the influence on the processes that contribute to soil degradation, proving to be a valuable tool for decision-making in the planning of preventive and mitigating measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use and land cover undergo constant transformations as a result of natural factors, at the same time that they have been subject to intense changes due to anthropic action over the years. There is a lack of studies that address these transformations in southern Brazil, especially in the Pampa biome, and particularly in the basin of Lake Guaíba/RS. This work aims to analyze the changes in land use and occupation in the basin between the years 1985 and 2020, using the cartographic bases of the Mapbiomas Project, and to complement the investigation, presents the trend scenario for the years 2030 and 2050, through of the Dynamic EGO model. The results show that agricultural activities predominated in the basin until 2020, and the uses identified as Rice, Soybean and Forest Plantation advancing over the Grassland and on Other Temporary Crops in the last 35 years, consolidating in the basin to the detriment of other uses related to natural coverage. Forecasts for the near future show that this trend persists in the 2030 and 2050 scenarios, resulting in significant and irreparable losses to ecosystems. The observation of these transformations over time allows to design future studies for the evaluation of ecosystem services, for example, that can lead to the rational use of natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to assess the wild fire propagation risk to wildfires in the Itacolomi State Park, in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, using GIS and to compare the efficiency of the incident solar radiation over the aspect variable. The following variables were used: land cover/use (LCU), slope (SLP), slope curvature (CUR), aspect (ASP) and incident solar radiation (SOL). The weights of each variable were calculated from the ratio between the total area and the burned area of each class in order to generate the fire propagation risk maps. Fire data from 2016 to 2019 were used for validation. When the moderate risk class was considered susceptible, inadequate precision was observed for both methods (ASP and SOL). On the other hand, when the moderate class was considered non-susceptible to fire, the results presented moderate accuracy. Furthermore, the methods using SOL and ASP showed similar results. The results can guide fire mitigation actions on the park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularisation and sophistication of wine tourism has transformed many rural regions around the globe. Understanding land cover and land use in the context of winescapes is critical, as well as mapping the development of tourism services and infrastructure. Geotechnology offers a number of tools to manage wine tourism destinations. Remote sensing and GIS data are used to analyse the early stages of tourism development in São Joaquim, Brazil, and how its new economic dynamics have evolved driven by the production of high-altitude wines and wine tourism. A cultural landscape analysis provides an understanding of the processes of economic activities, particularly considering the distinct geophysical landforms of the study area. We identify land cover and the classification of land use using primary and secondary data. QGIS software was used for the intersection between data from satellite imagens processing and secondary data. The results show that remote sensing and the use of GIS were practical resources in carrying out a preliminary analysis of cultural landscapes, especially winescapes, providing a database useful in territorial planning. The information gathered by this methodology identifies problems, enables planning the expansion of cultivation, and can be used to manage native vegetation areas and built-up areas. The combined findings provide support for discussing the relationship between winescapes, land use and cover, and their relationship to tourism. The database developed supports territorial planning in the context of wine tourism regions, and is a replicable asset for other rural areas worldwide. The information also supports the establishing of a geographical indication of origin for high altitude wines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying a watershed in the Amazon region requires understanding that this region has national and global relevance. The fact that the study area is located in the socalled arc of deforestation raises the need to understand its context, its vulnerabilities, and its physical, environmental, and anthropic components. This research assesses the environmental vulnerability of the Buriticupu River Watershed in Maranhão State, Brazil. The aim is to foster improvements that may contribute to environmental planning and, specifically, to water resource management. For this purpose, the authors used the Geographic Information System environment to work with Map Algebra, interrelating primary and secondary data on geology, relief, pedology, and land use and land cover to generate synthesis cartography. The results pointed to areas with predominantly medium vulnerability. However, the analyses highlight alluvial plains, which became the most fragile areas from an environmental point of view. This is mainly because these areas comprise water-saturated soils (gleysols), unconsolidated deposits of sand and silt (alluvial deposits), and extensive humid vegetation, characteristics of igapó and floodplain forests. This research generated a document that applies is applicable to the study area. It also provided, in a systemic and integrated way, a product that will help in planning, which is very important for the creation of a watershed committee, something necessary and still embryonic in Maranhão State, Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Direito da Cidade is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) 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.)

Subterranean habitats around the world can shelter diversified and threatened faunal communities. However, issues related to alterations in the landscape and structure of subterranean habitats still need to be better understood. Therefore, we used a multi-spatial scale analysis of land cover, land use, and cave habitats to predict the diversity of communities of subterranean invertebrates. We hypothesized that changes in land cover promote alterations in both faunal richness and composition and microhabitat diversity and that microhabitat features determined subterranean biodiversity. Sixteen limestone caves were sampled in Brazil at micro, meso, and macro scales using quadrats (1m²), transects (100 meters) as sample units inside caves and buffers with the radius of 100 and 250 meters in the surroundings of the cave entrances. Models performed showed that land cover and land use influenced cave environments, regarding both microhabitats traits and terrestrial invertebrate richness and composition. We also observed a relationship between microhabitat structure and terrestrial invertebrate richness and composition. Our results showed that deforested areas had negative effects on species richness and changed their composition, while natural areas had positive effects on microhabitat diversity. The same effects were observed for both 100 and 250 meters buffers. Invertebrate richness was negatively predicted by deforested areas while positively predicted by natural areas. Richness was also positively predicted by the combination of all microhabitat traits, and dissimilarity of fauna was influenced by microhabitat diversity in mesoscale and microscale by all microhabitat elements. The results highlight the importance of the landscape surrounding the caves to conserve the subterranean habitats and their fauna. Due to the spatial and temporal changes in the global environmental scenario, we argue the urgency of further detailed studies in fragmented landscapes to define minimum areas of protection for cave environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial mammals face a severe crisis of habitat loss worldwide. Therefore, assessing information on habitat loss throughout different time periods is crucial for assessing species' conservation statuses based on the IUCN Red List system. To support the national extinction risk assessment in Brazil (2016-2022), we developed a script that uses the MapBiomas Project 6.0 data source of land cover and land use (annual maps at 30 m scale) within the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to calculate habitat loss. We defined suitable habitats from the MapBiomas Project land cover classification for 190 mammalian taxa, according to each species range map and ecological characteristics. We considered a period of three generation lengths to assess habitat loss in accordance with the Red List assessment criteria. We used the script to estimate changes in available habitat throughout the analyzed period within the species' known ranges. The results indicated that habitat loss occurred within 94.3% of the analyzed taxa range, with the Carnivora order suffering the greatest habitat loss, followed by the Cingulata order. These analyses may be decisive for applying criteria, defining categories during the assessment of at least 17 species (9%), enriching discussions, and raising new questions for several other species. We considered the outcome of estimating habitat loss for various taxa when applying criterion A, which refers to population reduction, thus supporting more accurate inferences about past population declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In flood area mapping studies, hydrological-hydraulic modeling has been successfully applied around the world. However, the object of study of most of the research developed in Brazil is medium to large channels that use topographical and hydrometeorological data of coarse spatial and temporal resolution. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate coupled modeling in a small urban channel, using high-resolution data, in the simulation of flood events in a small urban channel, located in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. In this study, we used the HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS programs, where topographic information, land use, land cover, and observed data from rain gauges, water level, and flow sensors from 2015 to 2018 were used as input data. To calibrate and validate the hydrological model, four events were used that occurred during the monitoring period, while in the hydraulic model we chose a historical event that caused great disturbances. We then generated flood scenarios with representative synthetic rainfall for a basin, with return times of 5, 10, 50, and 100 years. We observed a good fit in the calibration and validation of the HEC-HMS, with values of R2 = 0.93, RMSE = 1.29, and NSE = 0.92. In HEC-RAS, we obtained values of R2 = 0.93, RMSE = 1.29, and NSE = 0.92 for the calibration, and in the validation, real images of the event prove the computed flood spot sources. We observed that rain with a return time of less than five years provides areas of flooding in several regions of the channel, and in critical channeled sections, the elevation and speed of the flow reach 5 m and 3 m·s−1, respectively. Our results indicate that the channel already has a natural tendency towards flooding in certain stretches, which become more compromised due to land use and coverage and local conditions. We conclude that the high-resolution coupled modeling generated information that represents local conditions as well, showing how potential failures of drainage in extreme scenarios are possible, thus enabling the planning of adaptations and protection measures against floods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic changes and land usage and cover (LULC) can significantly impact the availability of water resources in a region. On the other hand, water resources are intrinsically linked to economic production. Thus, managing water resources and their know-how on how they are affected by the climate and LULC are essential in regional development. The Global Climatic Model evaluated water resource management on its effects of climatic changes (2019–2099) based on four R epresentative Concentration Pathways (RCP 2.6, 4.5, 6.0, and 8.5) and the impact of changes in LULC in the Hydrographic Basin of the Cubatão River (HBCR), in Brazil. The fragilities of water resource management were observed. The scarcity of precipitation data made a direct impact on the estimated monthly average flow, as the estimated reduction was 45.4 % (RCP 2.6), 41.9 % (RCP 4.5), 43.2 % (RCP 6.0), and 41.7 % (RCP 8.5) by the end of the century. The forecast change in LULC reduces the impact on the decreased average monthly flow to 2.9 % by 2099 (RCP 2.6), 2.5 % (RCP 4.5), and 2.7 % (RCP 6.0 and 8.5). The actual evapotranspiration will be less than 2.4 % (RCP 2.6 and 6.0) and 2.3 % (RCP 4.5 and 8.5) with changes in the LULC in future scenarios. The HBCR already uses the entire status of authorized flow that will further aggravate as population growth continues. The results display faulty water resource maintenance of the basin that indeed will interfere in local economic development. • Climate change models estimate higher precipitation, but it is still insufficient. • Without the management of water resources, economic development is threatened. • The lack of instrument prevents the management of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest fires negatively impact ecosystem services, affecting human welfare. The present study proposes a Forest Fire Risk Indicator (FFRI) based on the Fire and Burn Risk Indicator (FBRI). The instrument was applied to the Sorocabuçu River Basin in São Paulo State, Brazil. The FBRI was initially obtained by using the factors that most contribute to the start or spread of fires according to the literature. These factors were later grouped into anthropogenic, topographic, land cover/land use, and climatic variables. The factors of each variable were classified into intervals to which a fire risk value was assigned ranging from 0 (null risk) to 1 (very high risk). By applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process, we obtained the final FBRI, after which the FFRI was created. The final FBRI showed predominantly high risks (64.78%) throughout the basin, as well as the FFRI (82.56%). The present study evidences that most forest fragments need measures for ecosystem protection. This can be done in different ways such as monitoring through fire towers and conduction of environmental education activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explored the association between land use and fish species richness on 52 coastal lagoons in Southeast and South Brazil. We measured the proportion of agriculture and urbanization around lagoons over 26 years and used the coefficient of variation (CV) as a surrogate of the temporal land cover variability. We compiled species occurrences from primary data, from the literature and from museum records, and assigned each recorded species to different habitat use groups: benthic/bottom or water column, and littoral or limnetic zones. In the Southeast, where most lagoons are subject to marine influence, richness was negatively associated to agriculture and positively associated to urbanization. In the South, where freshwater lagoons predominate, richness was negatively associated to urbanization and positively associated to agriculture. The results suggest that fish communities from freshwater coastal lagoons are more sensitive to land use than brackish lagoons. Differently from brackish lagoons, that are colonized by both freshwater and marine species, freshwater lagoons rely on neighboring lagoons as species donors. However, this apparent resilience of the brackish lagoons must be regarded with caution, since the increase in marine connections due to artificial sandbar openings may impair freshwater species with time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a method, based on orbital remote sensing, to map the extent of forest plantations in São Paulo State (Southeast Brazil). The proposed method uses the random forest machine learning algorithm available on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud computing platform. We used 30 m annual mosaics derived from Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images and from Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images for the 1985 to 1995 and 2013 to 2021 time periods, respectively. These time periods were selected based on the planted areas' rotation, especially the eucalypt's short rotation. To classify the forest plantations, green, red, NIR, and MIR spectral bands, NDVI, GNDVI, NDWI, and NBR spectral indices, and vegetation, shade, and soil fractions were used for both sensors. These indices and the fraction images have the advantage of reducing the volume of data to be analyzed and highlighting the forest plantations' characteristics. In addition, we also generated one mosaic for each fraction image for the TM and OLI datasets by computing the maximum value through the period analyzed, facilitating the classification of areas occupied by forest plantations in the study area. The proposed method allowed us to classify the areas occupied by two forest plantation classes: eucalypt and pine. The results of the proposed method compared with the forest plantation areas extracted from the land use and land cover maps, provided by the MapBiomas product, presented the Kappa values of 0.54 and 0.69 for 1995 and 2020, respectively. In addition, two pilot areas were used to evaluate the classification maps and to monitor the phenological stages of eucalypt and pine plantations, showing the rotation cycle of these plantations. The results are very useful for planning and managing planted forests by commercial companies and can contribute to developing an automatic method to map forest plantations on regional and global scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities increasingly face flood risk primarily due to extensive changes of the natural land cover to built‐up areas with impervious surfaces. In urban areas, flood impacts come mainly from road interruption. This article proposes an urban flood risk map from hydrological and mobility data, considering the megacity of São Paulo, Brazil, as a case study. We estimate the flood susceptibility through the Height Above the Nearest Drainage algorithm; and the potential impact through the exposure and vulnerability components. We aggregate all variables into a regular grid and then classify the cells of each component into three classes: Moderate, High, and Very High. All components, except the flood susceptibility, have few cells in the Very High class. The flood susceptibility component reflects the presence of watercourses, and it has a strong influence on the location of those cells classified as Very High. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local communities and individual species jointly contribute to the overall beta diversity in metacommunities. However, it is mostly unknown whether the local contribution (LCBD) and the species contribution (SCBD) to beta diversity can be predicted by local and regional environmental characteristics and by species traits and taxonomic relatedness, respectively. We investigated the LCBD and SCBD of stream benthic diatoms and insects along a gradient of land use intensification, ranging from streams in pristine forests to agricultural catchments in southeast subtropical Brazil. We expected that the LCBD would be negatively related to forest cover and positively related to the most unique streams in terms of environmental characteristics and land use (hereafter environmental and land use uniqueness, respectively). We also expected that species with a high SCBD would occur at sites with reduced forest cover. We found that the LCBD of diatoms and insects was negatively related to forest cover. The LCBD of insects was also positively related to environmental and land use uniqueness. As forest cover was negatively related to uniqueness in land use, biologically unique streams were those that deviated from the typical regional land cover. We also found that diatom traits, insect traits, and taxonomic relatedness partly explained SCBD. Furthermore, the SCBD of diatoms was positively correlated with forest cover, but the inverse was found for insects. We showed that deforestation creates novel and unique communities in subtropical streams and that species that contribute the most to beta diversity can occur at opposite ends of a land use gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The changes made to the Brazilian Forestry Legislation, with Law No. 12,651/12,727 (2012), impacted the demarcation and restoration of Permanent Preservation Areas (APP). Objective: The objective of this work was to delimit and evaluate the APP scenarios in the municipality of Porciúncula/RJ, Brazil, inserted in the Atlantic Forest biome, following the variations of the Brazilian forest legislation since the 1965 Forestry Code until nowadays. Methods: All data analysis was performed using RapidEye-REIS satellite scenes from 2014 and 2015, supervised classification of land use and land cover, basin hydrography, digital elevation model and processing in ArcGIS 10.2 software. The scenarios adopted were: I) Law No. 4,771/1965 and CONAMA Resolution No. 303/2002; II) Laws No. 12,651/2012 and No. 12,727/2012; III) Laws No. 12,651/2012 and No. 12,727/2012 and INEA Resolution No. 93/2014. Results: There was a predominance of agricultural and forest areas, adding more than 90% of the municipality, in the mapping with 96% global accuracy and Kappa index of 0.91. As for the evaluation of the scenarios, it was identified that Scenarios II and III impacted the reduction of APPs by 11.42% and 10.19%, demonstrating the impact of changes in accordance with changes in legislation over the years. In contrast, the legislation of the State of Rio de Janeiro provides a greater percentage of the protected area. Conclusion: It is concluded that the current forest legislation has caused loss of protection in important environmental areas and may increase the fragility of the entire ecosystem in the municipality and region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main problems faced by the Belém Metropolitan Region (BMR) inhabitants is flash floods caused by precarious infrastructure and extreme rainfall events. The objective of this article is to investigate whether and how the local urban characteristics may influence the development of thunderstorms. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used with three distinct configurations of land use/cover to represent urbanization scenarios in 2017 and 1986 and the forest-only scenario. The WRF model simulated reasonably well the event. The results showed that the urban characteristics of the BMR may have an impact on storm systems in the urban areas close to the Northern Coast of South America. In particular, for the urban characteristics in the BMR in 2017, the intensification of the storm may be linked to a higher value of energy available for convection (over 1000 J kg−1) and favorable wind convergence and vertical shear in the urban area (where the wind speed at the surface was more than 3 m s−1 slower than in the forest-only scenario). Meanwhile, the other land cover scenarios could not produce a similar storm due to lack of moisture, wind convergence/shear, or convective energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic activities have modified landscapes leading to environmental damages and to a threatened biodiversity. As a result, protected areas have become the last refuge for many species. Protected areas surrounded by a highly modified landscape may accumulate species, especially large mammals, which may alter their habitual habitat use. Here we used non-invasive DNA analysis, molecular species identification, and landscape analyses to assess the habitat use of carnivore species in an isolated protected area, Itatiaia National Park (PNI). Two species were by far the most sampled within PNI, Chrysocyon brachyurus and Leopardus guttulus. The spatial distribution of each species was assessed to the following landscape variables: altitude; land use/land cover; slope and Euclidean distances from water and from urban buildings. The habitat use of C. brachyurus and L. guttulus was related to altitude and land use/land cover. We tested whether there were differences in the environmental indicators considering both species, which showed that higher altitudes, forest and/or grassland formation were indeed associated with them. We highlighted the unprecedented presence of both species at altitudes up to 2,631 meters. Our results suggest a habitat use extension for both species inside the PNI that could be a consequence of the highly modified landscape where PNI is inserted. Therefore, the results can be helpful for better understanding the species dynamics and their conservation in the face of landscape changes. Further, this study may be of help for management and conservation policies of this emblematic protected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work was to carry out a multitemporal analysis of changes in land use and land cover in the municipality of Floresta, Pernambuco State in Brazil. Landsat images were used in the years 1985, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2014, and 2019, and the classes were broken down into areas: water, exposed soil, agriculture, and forestry, and using the Bhattacharya classifier, the classification was carried out for generating land use maps. The data was validated by the Kappa index and points collected in the field, and the projection of the dynamics of use for 2024 was constructed. The thematic maps of land use and coverage from 1985 to 2019 show more significant changes in the forest and exposed soil classes. The increase in the forest class and the consequent reduction in exposed soil are consequences of the interaction between climate and human activities and the quality of the spatial resolution of the satellite images used between the years analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, deforestation results in the loss of wide stretches of forest which is worsening the state of air quality, biodiversity, indigenous cultures, climate, meteorological conditions, etc. According to the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), roughly 20 million hectares of land were lost due to deforestation in 2020. To address the issue of deforestation, this study proposes a derivation of the deforestation risk model to target the spread of deforestation, which is the first step towards its prevention. The region of interest - North West of Mato Grosso, Brazil - was selected based on two characteristics: it is a deforestation hotspot according to MAAP and it comprises 4 indigenous lands. The sequence for developing the risk model comprises reference information collection, information cleaning, classification, postprocessing, and change detection. In a crowdsourcing mapathon, reference data were gathered, and they were refined in an iterative process using existing land cover maps and photo interpretation. Google Earth Engine and the Random Forest algorithm were used to classify Sentinel-2 imagery for 2019 and 2020. The results obtained are land cover maps from 2019 and 2020 and land cover change, and the risk model. The results are not demonstrating intensive deforestation in the region of interest, however, the deforestation appears to be systematic in two subregions, indicating that it has the potential to spread. An additional concern in the case of these subregions is their proximity to the indigenous land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon losses have enormous impacts on ecosystem and indicative meaning for ecological stability, which are, therefore, necessary to be evaluated. In recent years, with the increasingly number of people settling in Amazon basin, large areas of tropical forests have been exploited, which took the mainly responsible for local deforestation.Carbon losses are hardly to be evaluated directly but can be inferred from the relationship between potential carbon and forest structures referring to previous studies. Remote sensing-based methods are widely used because of the obvious advantages of, such as the repeatability of data collection, high correlations between spectral bands and vegetation parameters etc. However, the selection of the spatial resolution of data is a critical issue that should be taken into consideration for it influences the performance of image texture thereby the discrimination of land covers, especial in complex forest stand structure. The approach for image feature extraction used in the study is explained.Based on the available datasets, this study aims to estimate the potential carbon losses across selected plot in Nova Vida Ranch, Rondônia, Brazil between 1989 and 2001. The results showed that carbon potentials decreased at least 1.1*108 (Kg C) during the 12 years, which would affect all the climate, wildlife habitats and biodiversity. The study suggested that it is significantly important to reduce the uncertainties that are caused by saturation in some of the tropic areas. To pursue this, the research on the integration of optical and radar data is worth to experiment in further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]