Cargando…

Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil

Large forested tracts are increasingly rare in the tropics, where conservation managers are often presented with the challenge of preserving biodiversity in small and isolated fragments. The Atlantic Forest is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, jeopardized by habitat loss and f...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dias, Thiago da Costa, Silveira, Luís Fábio, Francisco, Mercival Roberto
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10490850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37682943
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291234
_version_ 1785103936126976000
author Dias, Thiago da Costa
Silveira, Luís Fábio
Francisco, Mercival Roberto
author_facet Dias, Thiago da Costa
Silveira, Luís Fábio
Francisco, Mercival Roberto
author_sort Dias, Thiago da Costa
collection PubMed
description Large forested tracts are increasingly rare in the tropics, where conservation managers are often presented with the challenge of preserving biodiversity in small and isolated fragments. The Atlantic Forest is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, jeopardized by habitat loss and fragmentation. The Pernambuco Endemism Center (PEC) is the most degraded of the Atlantic Forest regions and because of the dramatic levels of deforestation, fragmentation, and ongoing species losses, studies on the distribution and configuration of the PEC’s forest cover are necessary. However, across dynamic tropical landscapes, investigating changes over time is essential because it may reveal trends in forest quality attributes. Here, we used Google Earth Engine to assess land use and land cover data from MapBiomas ranging from 1985 to 2020 to calculate current landscape metrics and to reveal for the first time the spatiotemporal dynamics of the PEC’s forests. We identified a forest cover area that ranged from 571,661 ha in 1985 to 539,877 ha in 2020, and about 90% of the fragments were smaller than 10 ha. The average fragment size was about 11 ha, and only four fragments had more than 5,000 ha. Deforestation was mostly concentrated in northern Alagoas, southern Pernambuco, and non-coastal Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. On average, borders represented 53.6% of the forests from 1985 to 2020, and younger forests covered 52.3% of the area in 2017, revealing a vegetation rejuvenation process 2.5 times higher than in total Atlantic Forest. In 2017, older forest cores in fragments larger than 1000 ha (i.e., higher-quality habitats) represented only 12% of the remaining forests. We recommend that the amount of forest cover alone may poorly assist conservation managers, and our results indicate that ensuring legal protection and increasing surveillance of the PEC’s few last higher-quality habitats is urgently needed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10490850
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-104908502023-09-09 Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil Dias, Thiago da Costa Silveira, Luís Fábio Francisco, Mercival Roberto PLoS One Research Article Large forested tracts are increasingly rare in the tropics, where conservation managers are often presented with the challenge of preserving biodiversity in small and isolated fragments. The Atlantic Forest is one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, jeopardized by habitat loss and fragmentation. The Pernambuco Endemism Center (PEC) is the most degraded of the Atlantic Forest regions and because of the dramatic levels of deforestation, fragmentation, and ongoing species losses, studies on the distribution and configuration of the PEC’s forest cover are necessary. However, across dynamic tropical landscapes, investigating changes over time is essential because it may reveal trends in forest quality attributes. Here, we used Google Earth Engine to assess land use and land cover data from MapBiomas ranging from 1985 to 2020 to calculate current landscape metrics and to reveal for the first time the spatiotemporal dynamics of the PEC’s forests. We identified a forest cover area that ranged from 571,661 ha in 1985 to 539,877 ha in 2020, and about 90% of the fragments were smaller than 10 ha. The average fragment size was about 11 ha, and only four fragments had more than 5,000 ha. Deforestation was mostly concentrated in northern Alagoas, southern Pernambuco, and non-coastal Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. On average, borders represented 53.6% of the forests from 1985 to 2020, and younger forests covered 52.3% of the area in 2017, revealing a vegetation rejuvenation process 2.5 times higher than in total Atlantic Forest. In 2017, older forest cores in fragments larger than 1000 ha (i.e., higher-quality habitats) represented only 12% of the remaining forests. We recommend that the amount of forest cover alone may poorly assist conservation managers, and our results indicate that ensuring legal protection and increasing surveillance of the PEC’s few last higher-quality habitats is urgently needed. Public Library of Science 2023-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10490850/ /pubmed/37682943 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291234 Text en © 2023 Dias et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Dias, Thiago da Costa
Silveira, Luís Fábio
Francisco, Mercival Roberto
Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil
title Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil
title_full Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil
title_fullStr Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil
title_full_unstemmed Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil
title_short Spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an Atlantic Forest hotspot, the Pernambuco Endemism Center, northeastern Brazil
title_sort spatiotemporal dynamics reveals forest rejuvenation, fragmentation, and edge effects in an atlantic forest hotspot, the pernambuco endemism center, northeastern brazil
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10490850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37682943
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291234
work_keys_str_mv AT diasthiagodacosta spatiotemporaldynamicsrevealsforestrejuvenationfragmentationandedgeeffectsinanatlanticforesthotspotthepernambucoendemismcenternortheasternbrazil
AT silveiraluisfabio spatiotemporaldynamicsrevealsforestrejuvenationfragmentationandedgeeffectsinanatlanticforesthotspotthepernambucoendemismcenternortheasternbrazil
AT franciscomercivalroberto spatiotemporaldynamicsrevealsforestrejuvenationfragmentationandedgeeffectsinanatlanticforesthotspotthepernambucoendemismcenternortheasternbrazil