Arlete
S.
Almeida, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, arlete@museu-goeldi.br
Thomas
A.
Stone, The Woods Hole Research Center, tstone@whrc.org
Ima
C.
Vieira, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, ima@museu-goeldi.br
Eric
A.
Davidson, The woods Hole Research Center, edavidson@whrc.org
(Presenting)
While interest in Amazonian deforestation mostly focuses on frontier areas, the amount of forest cover in areas already dominated by human settlement is also changing. Secondary forests play an increasingly important role for maintaining genetic diversity, hydrological functioning, and greenhouse gas emissions of altered landscapes, but secondary forests are also being converted to more intensive agricultural uses. We analyzed five dates of Landsat imagery from 1984 to 2002, covering 8000 km2 of the Zona Bragantina of the eastern part of the Brazilian state of Para, which underwent its most intensive wave of deforestation several decades ago. However, even in this area of relatively long-term human occupation, we found ongoing decreases of forest cover, both in the small remaining areas of mature forest and in the more widespread areas of secondary forests, as human population increased and as land use intensified. Although there was an initial increase in the area of secondary forest from 1984 to 1994, there has been a steady decline since then, from 75% secondary forest cover in 1994 to 54% in 2002. The amount of pasture was relatively stable from 1984 to 1994 but more recently has shown a steady increase, reaching 37% cover in 2002. The average rate of carbon loss over the 18-year study period was 0.9 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 for the 8000 km2 study area. Forests in this long-settled region of eastern Amazonia continue to be degraded, resulting in the loss of ecosystem services and carbon stocks due to continued land use change.
Presentation Type: Poster
Poster Session: Carbon Cycle Science
NASA TE Funded Awards Represented:
NONE: Related Activity or Previously Funded TE Award