Abstract
Changes in land use associated with the suppression of native vegetation can greatly alter the landscape configuration, affecting biodiversity and environmental services availability. This study analyzes how changes in land use affect landscape patterns of vegetation remnant over a 10 year period. We quantified spatial landscape patterns throughout a hydrographic basin for the years 2002, 2008, 2010 and 2012, using nine landscape metrics. An indicator of integrity was used to details the transformation processes occurring in the basin that could be used to monitor the impact of landscape changes and its spatial patterning. Results showed that over this decade, extension of farming activities reduced the cover of native vegetation by 4.4%, with grassy-woody savanna, wooded savanna and forested savanna impacted especially strongly. Suppression of vegetation across this period reduced the size of fragments and their connectivity. The landscape fragmentation indicator indicated that the fragmentation pattern varied spatially, with the upland areas along river headwaters, being most fragmented. Areas of floodplains vegetation, belonged to the Pantanal Wetland, although in better integrity states, are the most threatened by current pressures of land use change. An intense recovery program for headwaters and aquifer recharge areas, as well as riparian forests, is recommended to avoid the future depletion of water production. Besides, we also recommend the maintenance and recovering of the connectivity of the current remaining patches of natural vegetation corridors and elaboration of specific laws that incoporate the consolidated scientific knowladge about wetland ecosystem functioning, like the Pantanal.
Highlights
Changes in land use associated with the suppression of native vegetation are of great concern to human populations because of its consequences for biodiversity loss, climate change, carbon sequestration, food provision, and other ecosystem services, such as maintaining the quality and availability water [1]
Mid basin units were represented by the intermediate reaches of the Aquidauana (Middle Aquidauana River-MAR) and the Miranda (Middle Miranda River-MMR); whereas the lowest portions of the basin was represented by the Lower Miranda River (LMR) that crosses the Pantanal floodplain
More than half of the Miranda basin is deforested, with loss of its native vegetation of more than 1880 square kilometers in the period of 10 years, corresponding to a reduction of 4.4% of the total area
Summary
Changes in land use associated with the suppression of native vegetation are of great concern to human populations because of its consequences for biodiversity loss, climate change, carbon sequestration, food provision, and other ecosystem services, such as maintaining the quality and availability water [1]. Loss of the same amount of remaining area, for example, can result in an increased number of fragments, as well as in no changes in the landscape configuration. One large remaining contiguous patch can become numerous small and isolated fragments [6]. The direction of these changes is not easy to predict because it depends on several factors that act integrally, including the biophysical heterogeneity of the environment and the socio-economic and political influences on the human activities transforming the landscape [7] [8]
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