Two decades of land cover mapping in the Río de la Plata grassland region: The MapBiomas Pampa initiative

Baeza, Santiago; Vélez‐Martin, Eduardo; Abelleyra, Diego de; Banchero, Santiago; Gallego, Federico; Schirmbeck, J.; Verón, Santiago R.; Vallejos, María; Weber, Eliseu José; Oyarzábal, Mariano; Barbieri, Alisson Flávio; Petek, M.; Lara, M. Guerra; Sarrailhé, S.S.; Baldi, Germán; Bagnato, Camilo Ernesto; Bruzzone, L.; Ramos, Silvio J.; Hasenack, Heinrich

doi:10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100834

Cited by 32 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…To evaluate the effect of the unequal sample size and the increasing sampling effort with time on the estimation of cyanobacterial abundance (Hallegraeff et al, 2021), we conducted different strategies (Material S1): (i) aggregating the information as yearly average both including and excluding the periods with less data (between 1995 and 2003), (ii) aggregating the information every 5 years and performing unweighted and weighted regressions (weights proportional to the number of data points per period) and (iii) using bootstrapping type of re-sampling to produce 250 smaller samples of 15 cases and then producing 250 temporal TA B L E 1 Uruguay river (UR) basin and sub-basins areas, countries, MapBiomas (MB) collections and temporal period of the information used (MapBiomas Pampa: Baeza et al, 2022, Atlantic Forest Tri-national initiatives: Souza et al, 2020. Refer to Figure 1 for visual location.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rise of toxic cyanobacterial blooms is promoted by agricultural intensification in the basin of a large subtropical river of South America

Kruk

Segura²,

Piñeiro

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Toxic cyanobacterial blooms are globally increasing with negative effects on aquatic ecosystems, water use and human health. Blooms' main driving forces are eutrophication, dam construction, urban waste, replacement of natural vegetation with croplands and climate change and variability. The relative effects of each driver have not still been properly addressed, particularly in large river basins. Here, we performed a historical analysis of cyanobacterial abundance in a large and important ecosystem of South America (Uruguay river, ca 1900 km long, 365,000 km2 basin). We evaluated the interannual relationships between cyanobacterial abundance and land use change, river flow, urban sewage, temperature and precipitation from 1963 to the present. Our results indicated an exponential increase in cyanobacterial abundance during the last two decades, congruent with an increase in phosphorus concentration. A sharp shift in the cyanobacterial abundance rate of increase after the year 2000 was identified, resulting in abundance levels above public health alert since 2010. Path analyses showed a strong positive correlation between cyanobacteria and cropland area at the entire catchment level, while precipitation, temperature and water flow effects were negligible. Present results help to identify high nutrient input agricultural practices and nutrient enrichment as the main factors driving toxic bloom formation. These practices are already exerting severe effects on both aquatic ecosystems and human health and projections suggest these trends will be intensified in the future. To avoid further water degradation and health risk for future generations, a large‐scale (transboundary) change in agricultural management towards agroecological practices will be required.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rise of toxic cyanobacterial blooms is promoted by agricultural intensification in the basin of a large subtropical river of South America

Kruk

Segura²,

Piñeiro

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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“…Diff = (EqSOC -Reference SOC) x 100 / Reference SOC. We also calculated the proportion of area with annual crops in each soil unit by using the MapBiomas land cover map (Vallejos et al 2021, Baeza et al 2022 for the year 2018 to explore if SOC differences were related to the expansion of crop production. On the other hand, we obtained the proportion of MODIS pixels that had negative, positive and no trends in the ESSI estimations during the 2000-2022 period in each soil unit.…”

Section: Soc Maps and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though the precision of the SOC estimation of a given paddock depends on knowing the initial C stocks, simulations can track the trend of changes and provide a reliable estimation of the expected differences between paddocks under different management. Nowadays, a critical part of the information required to perform such simulations can be derived from secondary data (soil maps, climate databases) and land cover maps, such as those provided by the MapBiomas Pampa project (Vallejos et al 2021, Baeza et al 2022.…”

Section: Patterns Of Reference and Current C Stocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carbon stocks and potential sequestration of Uruguayan soils. A road map to a comprehensive characterization of temporal and spatial changes to assess Carbon footprint

Baldassini¹,

Baethgen²,

Sans³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Carbon net emission is a critical aspect of the environmental footprint in agricultural systems. However, the alternatives to describe soil organic carbon (SOC) changes associated with different agricultural management practices/land uses are limited. Here we provide an overview of carbon (C) stocks of non-forested areas of Uruguay to estimate SOC changes for different soil units affected by accumulated effects of crop and livestock production systems in the last decades. For this, we defined levels based on SOC losses relative to the original (reference) SOC stocks: 25% or less, between 25-50%, and 50% or more. We characterized the reference SOC stocks using three approaches: 1) an equation to derive the potential SOC capacity based on the clay and fine silt soil content, 2) the DayCent model to estimate the SOC stocks based on climate, soil texture and C inputs from the natural grasslands of the area, 3) an estimate of SOC using a proxy derived from remote sensing data (i.e., the Ecosystem Services Supply Index) that accounts for differences in C inputs. Depending on the used reference SOC, the soil units had different distributions of SOC losses within the zones defined by the thresholds. As expected, the magnitude of SOC changes observed for the different soil units was related to the relative frequency of annual crops, however, the high variability observed along the gradient of land uses suggests a wide space for increasing SOC with agricultural management practices. The assessment of the C stock preserved (CSP) belowground and the potential for increasing C sequestration (CAP) are critical components of the C footprint of a given system. In this article we propose a methodological road map to derive indicators of CSP and CAP at the farm level combining both, biogeochemical simulation models and conceptual models based on remotely sensed data. We recognize at least three critical issues that require scientific and political consensus to implement the use of the proposed CSP and CAP criteria: (1) how to define potential or reference C stocks, (2) how to estimate current C stocks over large areas and in heterogeneous agricultural landscapes, and (3) what is a reasonable/acceptable threshold of C stocks reduction.

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“…These grasslands, dominated by C3 and C4 grasses, have a high richness of plant species and several endemism (Soriano, 1992;Andrade et al, 2018). Although the region experienced a high rate of transformation, it still has large areas of native grasslands, particularly in Uruguay (Baeza & Paruelo, 2020;Paruelo et al, 2022;Baeza et al, 2022). Extensive grazing by large herbivores (native and domestic) and fire are the two key disturbances in maintaining the structure and functioning of the Río de la Plata Grasslands (Paruelo et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rangeland resilience to droughts: Changes across an intensification gradient

Tommasino

Lezama

Gallego

et al. 2023

Applied Vegetation Science

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The intensification of livestock systems generates structural and functional changes in native grassland, which alter their capacity to respond to disturbances. Our objective was to evaluate the resilience to an extraordinary consecutive droughts event, across an intensification gradient of pastoral systems. Our prediction is that sites with more intensive management (less diverse) will have lower resilience (as resistance and/or recovery) to drought. LocationSouth-central region of Uruguay. MethodsWe evaluated the resilience (as resistance and recovery) to consecutive droughts, across an intensification gradient of pastoral systems. We analyzed the effect of diversity on resilience at two scales: 1. regional, where we compared the resilience of three systems with an increasing level of intensification that determine changes in diversity, 2. patch, we carried out a manipulative experiment with different grazing management systems (different level of defoliation, and fertilization). In both experiments the response variables, resistance and recovery, were calculated from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, a remotely sensed proxy of aerial net primary productivity. ResultsOur results showed that sown pastures (the less diverse) had significantly lower resistance, than native grassland and overseed grassland. Also, sown pastures showed the lowest recovery rate, although differences were only significant with overseed grassland. Grazing treatments at the plot level (manipulative experiment) did not show clear differences among treatments neither for resistance nor recovery. However, resistance of the individual plots showed a positive significant association with evenness and diversity of functional groups. ConclusionThis study showed that the different grazing managements studied were resilient, in terms of their ANPP, to a major drought disturbance event. Differences in resilience was expressed in resistance rather than recovery. These results support our prediction, both at the regional and plot scales, that the least rich and diverse situations showed the lowest resilience, at least in terms of resistance.

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Two decades of land cover mapping in the Río de la Plata grassland region: The MapBiomas Pampa initiative

Cited by 32 publications

References 66 publications

Rise of toxic cyanobacterial blooms is promoted by agricultural intensification in the basin of a large subtropical river of South America

Rise of toxic cyanobacterial blooms is promoted by agricultural intensification in the basin of a large subtropical river of South America

Carbon stocks and potential sequestration of Uruguayan soils. A road map to a comprehensive characterization of temporal and spatial changes to assess Carbon footprint

Rangeland resilience to droughts: Changes across an intensification gradient

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