Temporal Analysis of Change in Landscape of Atlantic Forest in the Municipality of Caxias do Sul - RS
Main Article Content
Abstract
At present, human activities have led to conversion of forest areas in agropastoral and urban ecosystems. In this
process, the continuous forest is interrupted by these anthropogenic barriers which are capable of preventing gene
flow, increasing the rate of inbreeding, which can lead to decreased genetic variability and the consequent decline of
biological diversity. The Atlantic Forest, the target of this study lost approximately 71% of its area, and its remnants
have, for the most part, small and isolated from each other areas. In this context, the aim of this study was to analyze
changes in land cover and land use in the municipality of Caxias do Sul-RS, with emphasis on the dynamics of forest
fragments of Atlantic Forest and evaluating indices of landscape ecology, in order to verify whether changes occurred
over time favored the maintenance of biodiversity. To achieve the proposed objective, we used Landsat 5 satellite
images for the years 1985, 2004 and 2011 to obtain the information use and land cover , especially forest areas and
landscape ecology indexes, such as the number, size, shape, distance, area core and cohesion. The results indicated
an increase of approximately 203km² of forest areas between the years 1985 and 2011, representing an increase of
around 36% of Seasonally Deciduous Forests and Mixed Ombrophilous. In contrast, there was decrease in areas of
high altitude grasslands (jab grassy-woody) of 563,77km² in 1985 to 304,16km² in 2011, a difference of 152,77km²
(about 30%). The indices of landscape ecology indicated an improvement in environmental quality in terms of forest
fragments, since average size and the inner area of the fragments increased, causing greater cohesion between a forest
and neighboring forest patches.
Downloads
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see "The Effect of Open Access").
