Ecosystem services of regulation and support in Amazonian pioneer fronts: searching for landscape drivers

Abstract

Landscape dynamics result from forestry and farming practices, both of which are expected to have diverse impacts on ecosystem services (ES). In this study, we investigated this general statement for regulating and supporting services via an assessment of ecosystem functions: climate regulation via carbon sequestration in soil and plant biomass, water cycle and soil erosion regulation via water infiltration in soil, and support for primary production via soil chemical quality and water storage. We tested the hypothesis that patterns of land-cover composition and structure significantly alter ES metrics at two different scales. We surveyed 54 farms in two Amazonian regions of Brazil and Colombia and assessed land-cover composition and structure from remote sensing data (farm scale) from 1990 to 2007. Simple and well-established methods were used to characterize soil and vegetation from five points in each farm (plot scale). Most ES metrics were significantly correlated with land-use (plot scale) and land-cover (farm scale) classifications; however, spatial variability in inherent soil properties, alone or in interaction with land-use or land-cover changes, contributed greatly to variability in ES metrics. Carbon stock in above-ground plant biomass and water infiltration rate decreased from forest to pasture land covers, whereas soil chemical quality and plant-available water storage capacity increased. Land-cover classifications based on structure metrics explained significantly less ES metric variation than those based on composition metrics. Land-cover composition dynamics explained 45 % (P < 0.001) of ES metric variance, 15 % by itself and 30 % in interaction with inherent soil properties. This study describes how ES evolve with landscape changes, specifying the contribution of spatial variability in the physical environment and highlighting trade-offs and synergies among ES. (Résumé d'auteur

Compensating for past deforestation: Assessing the legal forest surplus and deficit of the state of Pará, eastern Amazonia

“…The protection of forests on private land is therefore a vital part of any overall conservation strategy, helping sustain the delivery of critical ecosystem services, including maintenance of hydrological cycles, water quality, climate regulation through carbon sequestration and storage and the conservation of biodiversity (Daily et al, 1997;Nasi et al, 2002;Grimaldi et al, 2014).…”

Characterization and Classification of Soils under Forest and Pasture in an Agroextractivist Project in Eastern Amazonia

“…In the Amazon biome, the use of pastures has been indicated as the major factor promoting extensive deforestation and causing serious losses to landscape dynamics (Ferraz et al, 2005;Grimaldi et al, 2014;Marichal et al, 2014).…”

A 22 year assessment of deforestation and restoration in riparian forests in the eastern Brazilian Amazon

“…org/10.1017/S0376892914000356 maintenance of water quality, protection of soil, climate regulation through carbon sequestration and storage, and the conservation of biodiversity (Daily et al 1997;Nasi et al 2002;Grimaldi et al 2014). Yet, c. 13 million hectares of the world's forests were lost each year over the last decade (FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations] 2010), mainly due to conversion for cattle ranching and agriculture (Margulis 2003;FAO 2010).…”

“…We focus on the 1.9 million hectare municipality of Paragominas, located in the state of Pará, because: (1) it experienced high levels of deforestation during the period of analysis; (2) it is widely recognized as exemplifying recent efforts by state and municipal government, as well as civil society, to reduce deforestation; and (3) it has a nearly complete and accurate registry of land titles compared to the other Amazonian municipalities (Guimarães et al 2011;Viana et al 2012;Gardner et al 2013). We address three specific questions: (1) does the temporal pattern of deforestation within RAPPs follow the same pattern of forest loss observed in areas outside RAPPs?…”