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Land use and social-ecological legacies of Rio de Janeiro's Atlantic urban forests: from charcoal production to novel ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Historical ecology is an important tool in deciphering human-environment interactions imprinted on landscapes throughout time. However, gaps of knowledge still remain regarding the land use legacies hidden in the current Atlantic Forest landscape; and also regarding how this information can help management of the remaining forest cover. The social-ecological systems framework was applied to understand charcoal production in the urban forests of Rio de Janeiro, from the nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, and their current social-ecological legacies. Charcoal production carried out by former enslaved populations, allowed for rapid forest regeneration. Forest thinning instead of forest felling was carried out by small groups in these urban remnant forests, sparing large native trees and facilitating natural regeneration. Currently, more than one thousand former charcoal production sites are accounted for hidden underneath the forest cover. The forest landscape of today is a result of novel forest successional trajectories that recovered structural and functional attributes of the forest ecosystem. However, this came at the cost of social invisibility and marginalization of these populations. The management practices of charcoal production dispersed in the landscape is one of Rio de Janeiro's most important, albeit hidden, land use legacies. Currently, the forested landscape is comprised of regenerated forests, both structurally and functionally sound, though with significant changes in species composition including the introduction of exotic species throughout recent centuries. These urban forests are today a complex mosaic of novel ecosystems, with rich biocultural diversity, and together with managed lands and well conserved forest tracts, provide not only livelihood and sustenance for forest dwelling families, but also important ecosystem services for the entire population of Rio de Janeiro. We believe that these concepts and frameworks can offer practical solutions for urban forest management, taking into account the biocultural diversity of Rio de Janeiro, increasing awareness of sustainability and promoting food security.

SUBMITTER: Solorzano A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8242837 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Disturbance legacies structure communities and ecological memory, but due to increasing changes in disturbance regimes, it is becoming more difficult to characterize disturbance legacies or determine how long they persist. We sought to quantify the characteristics and persistence of material legacies (e.g., biotic residuals of disturbance) that arise from variation in fire severity in an eastern ponderosa pine forest in North America. We compared forest stand structure and understory woody plant and bird community composition and species richness across unburned, low-, moderate-, and high-severity burn patches in a 27-year-old mixed-severity wildfire that had received minimal post-fire management. We identified distinct tree densities (high: 14.3 ± 7.4 trees per ha, moderate: 22.3 ± 12.6, low: 135.3 ± 57.1, unburned: 907.9 ± 246.2) and coarse woody debris cover (high: 8.5 ± 1.6% cover per 30 m transect, moderate: 4.3 ± 0.7, low: 2.3 ± 0.6, unburned: 1.0 ± 0.4) among burn severities. Understory woody plant communities differed between high-severity patches, moderate- and low-severity patches, and unburned patches (all p < 0.05). Bird communities differed between high- and moderate-severity patches, low-severity patches, and unburned patches (all p < 0.05). Bird species richness varied across burn severities: low-severity patches had the highest (5.29 ± 1.44) and high-severity patches had the lowest (2.87 ± 0.72). Understory woody plant richness was highest in unburned (5.93 ± 1.10) and high-severity (5.07 ± 1.17) patches, and it was lower in moderate- (3.43 ± 1.17) and low-severity (3.43 ± 1.06) patches. We show material fire legacies persisted decades after the mixed-severity wildfire in eastern ponderosa forest, fostering distinct structures, communities, and species in burned versus unburned patches and across fire severities. At a patch scale, eastern and western ponderosa system responses to mixed-severity fires were consistent.

Project description:Recent research has demonstrated how scavenging, the act of consuming dead animals, plays a key role in ecosystem structure, functioning, and stability. A growing number of studies suggest that vertebrate scavengers also provide key ecosystem services, the benefits humans gain from the natural world, particularly in the removal of carcasses from the environment. An increasing proportion of the human population is now residing in cities and towns, many of which, despite being highly altered environments, contain significant wildlife populations, and so animal carcasses. Indeed, non-predation fatalities may be higher within urban than natural environments. Despite this, the fate of carcasses in urban environments and the role vertebrate scavengers play in their removal have not been determined. In this study, we quantify the role of vertebrate scavengers in urban environments in three towns in the UK. Using experimentally deployed rat carcasses and rapid fire motion-triggered cameras, we determined which species were scavenging and how removal of carcass biomass was partitioned between them. Of the 63 experimental carcasses deployed, vertebrate scavenger activity was detected at 67%. There was a significantly greater depletion in carcass biomass in the presence (mean loss of 194 g) than absence (mean loss of 14 g) of scavengers. Scavenger activity was restricted to three species, Carrion crows Corvus corone, Eurasian magpies Pica pica, and European red foxes Vulpes vulpes. From behavioral analysis, we estimated that a maximum of 73% of the carcass biomass was removed by vertebrate scavengers. Despite having low species richness, the urban scavenger community in our urban study system removed a similar proportion of carcasses to those reported in more pristine environments. Vertebrate scavengers are providing a key urban ecosystem service in terms of carcass removal. This service is, however, often overlooked, and the species that provide it are among some of the most disliked and persecuted.

Project description:BackgroundChagas disease control programmes have decreased the prevalence of Chagas disease in Latin America. Together with migration to urban areas and increase in life expectancy, a new scenario for Chagas disease has emerged in Brazil with most patients currently elderly individuals living in urban areas. However, acute Chagas disease cases still occur due to vector transmission by sylvatic vectors and oral transmission by contaminated food. Therefore, we characterized the clinical and epidemiological profile of the patients followed at Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We aimed to identify the clinical forms, associated co-morbidities, and geographical areas where younger patients originate from. This will aid in the identification of potential challenges to be currently faced.ResultsThis is a cross-sectional study. Adult patients with chronic Chagas disease were recruited between March 2013 and April 2016. Clinical and epidemiological data were obtained from electronic medical records and interviews. The clinical form of the Chagas disease presented by the patients was determined following the Brazilian Consensus on Chagas disease. Six hundred and nineteen patients (mean age 60 ± 12 years; 56.9% women) were included in this study. Patients' clinical forms were classified as follows: indeterminate 29.1%; cardiac 55.4%; digestive 5.5%; and mixed 10.0%. Patients aged over 65 years comprised 38% of the population. Hypertension was present in 347 (56%) patients, dyslipidemia in 261 patients (42%) and diabetes mellitus in 185 patients (30%). There were no differences regarding gender, race, comorbidities frequency or place of origin across Chagas disease clinical forms. Most of the elderly population originated from Bahia, Minas Gerais and Pernambuco states, while most of the younger patients were born in Ceará, Paraíba and Rio de Janeiro states.ConclusionsWe described a great proportion of elderly patients in the composition of an urban Brazilian Chagas disease patient cohort with a high prevalence of comorbidities. We also identified a change in the pattern of the place of origin among younger patients.

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Land use and social-ecological legacies of Rio de Janeiro's Atlantic urban forests: from charcoal production to novel ecosystems.

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