The role of protected areas in maintaining natural vegetation in Brazil.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Goncalves-Souza D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8448448 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Fire is an important disturbance agent in Myanmar impacting several ecosystems. In this study, we quantify the factors impacting vegetation fires in protected and non-protected areas of Myanmar. Satellite datasets in conjunction with biophysical and anthropogenic factors were used in a spatial framework to map the causative factors of fires. Specifically, we used the frequency ratio method to assess the contribution of each causative factor to overall fire susceptibility at a 1km scale. Results suggested the mean fire density in non-protected areas was two times higher than the protected areas. Fire-land cover partition analysis suggested dominant fire occurrences in the savannas (protected areas) and woody savannas (non-protected areas). The five major fire causative factors in protected areas in descending order include population density, land cover, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city and temperature. In contrast, the causative factors in non-protected areas were population density, tree cover percent, travel time from nearest city, temperature and elevation. The fire susceptibility analysis showed distinct spatial patterns with central Myanmar as a hot spot of vegetation fires. Results from propensity score matching suggested that forests within protected areas have 11% less fires than non-protected areas. Overall, our results identify important causative factors of fire useful to address broad scale fire risk concerns at a landscape scale in Myanmar.
| S-EPMC4409334 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Given the central importance of protected area systems in local, regional and global conservation strategies, it is vital that there is a good understanding of their effectiveness in maintaining ecological functioning. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first such global analysis, focusing on plant production, a "supporting" ecosystem function necessary for multiple other ecosystem services. We use data on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of variation in plant production in the core, boundary and surroundings of more than 1000 large protected areas over a 25 year period. Forested protected areas were higher (or similar), and those non-forested were lower (or similar), in NDVI than their surrounding areas, and these differences have been sustained. The differences from surrounding areas have increased for evergreen broadleaf forests and barren grounds, decreased for grasslands, and remained similar for deciduous forests, woodlands, and shrublands, reflecting different pressures on those surroundings. These results are consistent with protected areas being effective both in the representation and maintenance of plant production. However, widespread overall increases in NDVI during the study period suggest that plant production within the core of non-forested protected areas has become higher than it was in the surroundings of those areas in 1982, highlighting that whilst the distinctiveness of protected areas from their surroundings has persisted the nature of that difference has changed.
| S-EPMC3084248 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The precise mapping of vegetation covers in semi-arid areas is a complex task as this type of environment consists of sparse vegetation mainly composed of small shrubs. The launch of high resolution satellites, with additional spectral bands and the ability to alter the viewing angle, offers a useful technology to focus on this objective. In this context, atmospheric correction is a fundamental step in the pre-processing of such remote sensing imagery and, consequently, different algorithms have been developed for this purpose over the years. They are commonly categorized as imaged-based methods as well as in more advanced physical models based on the radiative transfer theory. Despite the relevance of this topic, a few comparative studies covering several methods have been carried out using high resolution data or which are specifically applied to vegetation covers. In this work, the performance of five representative atmospheric correction algorithms (DOS, QUAC, FLAASH, ATCOR and 6S) has been assessed, using high resolution Worldview-2 imagery and field spectroradiometer data collected simultaneously, with the goal of identifying the most appropriate techniques. The study also included a detailed analysis of the parameterization influence on the final results of the correction, the aerosol model and its optical thickness being important parameters to be properly adjusted. The effects of corrections were studied in vegetation and soil sites belonging to different protected semi-arid ecosystems (high mountain and coastal areas). In summary, the superior performance of model-based algorithms, 6S in particular, has been demonstrated, achieving reflectance estimations very close to the in-situ measurements (RMSE of between 2% and 3%). Finally, an example of the importance of the atmospheric correction in the vegetation estimation in these natural areas is presented, allowing the robust mapping of species and the analysis of multitemporal variations related to the human activity and climate change.
| S-EPMC5087412 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Globally, 15.5 million km(2) of land are currently identified as protected areas, which provide society with many ecosystem services including climate-change mitigation. Combining a global database of protected areas, a reconstruction of global land-use history, and a global biogeochemistry model, we estimate that protected areas currently sequester 0.5 Pg C annually, which is about one fifth of the carbon sequestered by all land ecosystems annually. Using an integrated earth systems model to generate climate and land-use scenarios for the twenty-first century, we project that rapid climate change, similar to high-end projections in IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, would cause the annual carbon sequestration rate in protected areas to drop to about 0.3 Pg C by 2100. For the scenario with both rapid climate change and extensive land-use change driven by population and economic pressures, 5.6 million km(2) of protected areas would be converted to other uses, and carbon sequestration in the remaining protected areas would drop to near zero by 2100.
| S-EPMC4752559 | biostudies-other
Project description:The land surface phenology (LSP) indicators (i.e., start, end, and length of the growing season: SOS, EOS, LOS) are important to reflect the growth of forest and its response to environmental changes. However, the spatiotemporal variation and its mechanism of forest phenology under different human disturbance' levels are still unclear. Here, we compare the LSP indicators inside and outside China's 257 protected areas (PAs) and explore the influencing factors of phenological differences (ΔSOS, ΔEOS, ΔLOS). We find that in general, EOS inside PAs (mean ± s.e.m: 312.6 ± 1.2days) is significantly earlier than outside (314.6 ± 1.2days), and LOS inside PAs (218.9 ± 2.0days) are significantly shorter than outside (220.6 ± 2.0days). ΔSOS and ΔEOS are controlled by nighttime and daytime temperature differences, respectively, and both factors affect ΔLOS. This evidence provides a new understanding about the functions of PAs and its influence on forest vegetation growth.
| S-EPMC10776955 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Protected natural areas (PNAs) can be a source of health and well-being, but little research has been carried out regarding outcomes in terms of satisfaction (the difference between motivations and benefits). Inspired by previous research that examines the motivations and benefits perceived by visitors to various PNAs in Canada, and based on importance-performance analysis (IPA) and service quality gap (GAP) analysis theory, the aim of this study was to identify the outcomes generated by protected areas in terms of satisfaction, especially with regard to the PNAs' individual protection categories. The study was based on survey data from visitors (n = 360) to three PNAs in Catalonia: one national park, one natural park and one periurban park. The results indicate that anticipated environmental, psychological, physical and social benefits were of major personal value in choosing to visit a PNA. The results indicate that, generally, visitors were satisfied with regard to the benefits anticipated. Differences between parks in this respect could be explained in part by sociodemographic factors and visitors' behavior. The results are discussed in terms of their applicability and how they relate to the role of PNAs in the promotion of visitors' health and well-being.
| S-EPMC7558053 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Biodiversity conservation has faced many challenges, especially the conversion of natural areas that compete with use for agriculture, energy production and mineral extraction. This problem is further aggravated by lack of knowledge of the biodiversity that exists and the geographical distribution of different groups. The objectives of our study were to examine the distributional pattern of Gerromorpha diversity in Brazil, create a map of conservation priority areas, estimate the degree of protection that the current network of protected areas guarantees to this insect group, and identify the size thresholds in geographical distributions that would allow species to be protected. We used species occurrences from the Water Bugs Distributional Database, and we used 19 bioclimatic variables to build models of the potential distributions of species using the MaxEnt program. Using the potential model results, we calculated diversity metrics and overlapped them with the current state and federal "conservation units" (protected areas for biodiversity) in Brazil. Total beta diversity and turnover portions were separated into two faunistic groups, one in northern and the other in southern Brazil. The Amazon has higher beta diversity than what was predicted by the null models. We detected a positive relationship between species distribution area and occurrence in conservation units. Conservation units with less than 250 km2 do not protect Gerromorpha species. Our results reinforce the necessity of formulating new conservation strategies for this group, contemplating species with both restricted and ample distributions, because rare and specialist species are the most harmed by habitat reduction, given that they are more sensitive to environmental disturbance.
| S-EPMC8553851 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Protected Areas (PAs) are essential to maintaining biodiversity, while effective management plans (MPs) are essential for the management of these areas. Thus, MPs must have relevant data analyses and diagnoses to evaluate ecological conditions of PAs. We evaluated the environmental diagnoses of 126 Brazilian federal PAs, the methods used to collect data and defined the diagnostic level of PMs according to the type and number of analyzes performed for each PA category. We found a low level of diagnosis in MPs. Primary field data or research programs resulted in environmental diagnostics of higher levels. Participatory workshops and secondary data, most used in Extractive Reserves, were related to low levels of diagnoses. The most frequent analysis was the identification of threats (97% of MPs), while the least frequent were the definition of conservation targets and future scenarios for management (1.6% of MPs). Our results show that the diagnoses of the MPs need to be more analytical to generate useful information for decision-making. MPs should prioritize data analysis and specific management studies, focused on the use of natural resources, the status of conservation targets, future scenarios, and key information to planning.
| S-EPMC7732074 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Protected areas (PAs) now shelter 54% of the remaining forests of the Brazilian Amazon and contain 56% of its forest carbon. However, the role of these PAs in reducing carbon fluxes to the atmosphere from deforestation and their associated costs are still uncertain. To fill this gap, we analyzed the effect of each of 595 Brazilian Amazon PAs on deforestation using a metric that accounts for differences in probability of deforestation in areas of pairwise comparison. We found that the three major categories of PA (indigenous land, strictly protected, and sustainable use) showed an inhibitory effect, on average, between 1997 and 2008. Of 206 PAs created after the year 1999, 115 showed increased effectiveness after their designation as protected. The recent expansion of PAs in the Brazilian Amazon was responsible for 37% of the region's total reduction in deforestation between 2004 and 2006 without provoking leakage. All PAs, if fully implemented, have the potential to avoid 8.0 +/- 2.8 Pg of carbon emissions by 2050. Effectively implementing PAs in zones under high current or future anthropogenic threat offers high payoffs for reducing carbon emissions, and as a result should receive special attention in planning investments for regional conservation. Nevertheless, this strategy demands prompt and predictable resource streams. The Amazon PA network represents a cost of US$147 +/- 53 billion (net present value) for Brazil in terms of forgone profits and investments needed for their consolidation. These costs could be partially compensated by an international climate accord that includes economic incentives for tropical countries that reduce their carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
| S-EPMC2890753 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Human impact on the environment is evident across the planet, including its most biodiverse areas. Of particular interest is the impact on the world's last wilderness areas, in which the largest patches of land relatively free from human influence remain. Here, we use the human footprint index to measure the extent to which the world's last wilderness areas have been impacted by human activities-between the years 1993 and 2009-and whether protected areas have been effective in reducing human impact. We found that overall the increase in human footprint was higher in tropical than temperate regions. Moreover, although on average the increase was lower inside protected areas than outside, in half of the fourteen biomes examined the differences were insignificant. Although reasons varied, protected areas alone are unlikely to be ubiquitously successful in protecting wilderness areas. To achieve protection, it is important to address loss and improve environmental governance.
| S-EPMC6965524 | biostudies-literature