Physical, ecological and human dimensions of environmental change in Brazil's Pantanal wetland: Synthesis and research agenda

Christopher Schulz,Bronwen S Whitney,Onélia Carmem Rossetto,Danilo M Neves,Lauren Crabb,Emiliano Castro De Oliveira,Pedro Luiz Terra Lima,Muhammad Afzal,Anna F Laing,Luciana C De Souza Fernandes,Charlei Aparecido Da Silva,Valdir Adilson Steinke,Ercília Torres Steinke,Carlos Hiroo Saito

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.023

Abstract

The Pantanal is the world's largest freshwater wetland, located in the geographical centre of South America. It is relatively well conserved, and features unique landscapes, ecosystems, and traditional cultural practices, shaped by the dynamic interaction of climatological, hydrological, geological, ecological, and anthropogenic factors. Its ecological integrity is increasingly threatened by human activities, particularly, in the wider catchment area, for example, deforestation, agricultural intensification, and construction of hydropower plants, with implications for local people's livelihoods. We present a synthesis of current literature on physical, ecological, and human dimensions of environmental change in the wetland, outline key research gaps, and discuss environmental management implications. The literature review suggests that better integration of insights from multiple disciplines is needed and that environmental management could be improved through a better grounding in traditional practices and local perspectives. We conclude with four recommendations: First, future environmental change research should build more strongly on the positive example of a small number of case studies where traditional and local knowledge of the environment was put into a dialogue with scientific knowledge and techniques. Second, we recommend a more explicit consideration of longer temporal scales (>10 years) in environmental change research, making use of oral and written histories, as well as palaeoecological techniques, to understand system responses to different magnitudes of human and climatic pressures, and ultimately, to inform future adaptation activities. Third, we suggest that enhanced stakeholder participation in conceiving and implementing research projects in the Pantanal would strengthen the practical relevance of research in addressing environmental management challenges, livelihood needs, and advocacy processes. Fourth, we call for a more systemic and integrative perspective on environmental education, which encompasses engagement activities between researchers, policy-makers, and citizens, to foster environmental awareness, scientific literacy, and public participation.

Highlights

The South American Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland, located mostly in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul (~80%), with minor shares in Bolivia (~19%) and Paraguay (~1%) (Calheiros et al 2012: 33)
We review physical and ecological as well as the human dimensions of environmental change in the Brazilian Pantanal, propose an agenda for future research, and outline key environmental management implications of existing and future research
Here we argue that one of the greatest challenges in ecology and ecosystems science today is understanding how dynamic landscapes affect ecosystem services, ecosystem services’ resilience to change (Lavergne et al 2013) and, how ecosystem services respond to such change

Summary

Introduction

The South American Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland, located mostly in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul (~80%), with minor shares in Bolivia (~19%) and Paraguay (~1%) (Calheiros et al 2012: 33) (see Figure 1 below). Given the fluctuations of the hydrological regime as demonstrated from long-term studies (see section 2.1), there is no understanding of these effects on fish population variability, either from palaeo or historical reconstructions (e.g., Lenders et al.2016; Selbie et al 2007) This lack of long-term (i.e., centennial to millennial) fish population data limits understanding of the impact of changes in the extent and magnitude of annual flooding on aquatic ecosystems. To address the geographical biases in the study of past environmental change, there need to be more coordinated efforts in the retrieval of records from a wider variety of deposits and different sub-regions of the Pantanal, and the application of modelling to provide insight into future change (such as the interaction between the landscape, flood pulse and precipitation). We first review current socioenvironmental research on the Pantanal region, discuss remaining research gaps and needs, and outline potential implications for environmental management, policy, and research

Current research on socio-environmental change in the Pantanal

Findings

Remaining gaps in research on socio-environmental change in the Pantanal