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Brazilian cerrado papers presented at Conservation Biology conference monbabay.com July 21, 2005 Below is a sampling of some of the Brazilian cerrado conservation-related papers submitted for the conference. All descriptions are excepts from the official "Book of Abstracts" from the meeting. MACHADO, RICARDO B.; Ramos Neto, Mário B.; Silva, José Maria C. Conservation In-ABSTRACTS Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, July 2005 ternational, SAUS quadra 3 lote C Ed. Business Point sala 722. 70070-934 - Brasília-DF - Brazil; r.machado((AT))conservation.org.br (RBM, MBRN, JMCS). Current deforestation rates for the Brazilian Cerrado indicates that the entire ecosystem can disappear by the year 2030. We used MODIS imagery from 2002 to estimate the remaining natural areas of Cerrado vegetation. We estimate that areal loss has been two million hectares annually for the last fifteen years. A conservative estimate is that average deforestation rate was 1.1% per year although rates could be as high as 3% for some areas. Expansion of agribusiness, particularly grain production, is the most recent threat to Cerrado's natural vegetation. Large portions of suitable areas for plantations (flat areas with well drained soil) are rapidly occupied, whereas rocky and sloppy areas are left for 'conservation'. As a consequence of this unplanned model, important centers of endemism such as the Araguaia region and other areas with high number of species are disappearing. The current Cerrado's protected areas covers less than 5% of the original 2 million km 2. Due to its international importance for conservation as a recognized hotspot, we argue that only a systematic planning at the same scale of the environmental impacts can promote the necessary conservation actions for the Cerrado biome CHANGES IN LAND USE AND EFFECTS ON CERRADO CARBON CYCLING. KLINK, CARLOS; Rodin, Patricia; Aduan, Roberto E. Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia, DF, 70919-970, Brazil, klink((AT))unb.br. Embrapa-Cerrados, Planaltina, DF, 71300 Brazil (REA, In Memorium). Our knowledge about Cerrado carbon cycling has improved. This allows us to compare carbon pools and fluxes of natural savannas with that of Cerrado's most extensive type of land use, planted pastures. Synthesis of estimation shows that fluxes are faster in pastures. Soil respiration is seasonally more variable in pastures than natural savannas and is correlated to soil temperature and cumulative precipitation. Pools in biomass (both above and belowground) are much larger in natural ecosystems than in pastures. Soil organic matter in pastures is slightly larger than in natural Cerrado. Most Cerrado biomass is belowground. Between 70 and 87% of belowground coarse biomass is lost when natural Cerrado is converted to pastures. Conversion of Cerrado is causing changes of the belowground component of ecosystems and raises concern regarding conservation of ec osystem services EXOTIC INVASIVE GRASSES IN THE BRAZILIAN CERRADO AND THEIR IMPACT ON FIRE REGIMES. FREITAS, GLAUCO K. Central South American Savannas Conservation Program, South America Conservation Region, The Nature Conservancy Brazil, SHIN CA 05, Conj. J, Bloco B, salas 301-309, 71.503-505, Brasília, DF, Brazil,(gfreitas((AT))tnc.org.br). In Brazil, African grasses introduced as forage, successfully established in the Cerrado due to its environmental similarity with African savannas and are now competing and displacing native grass species. African grasses have evolved under intense ungulate grazing resulting in morphological features that confer competitive advantages over the native species, such as perennial organs near or below the ground and a rapid response to defoliation. Vegetative growth is responsible for large biomass production that, in turn, increases fire occurrences in the Cerrado. Constant fires diminish herbaceous physiognomies and allow the dominance of few invasive and opportunistic species. Moreover, it changes the velocity and temperature of fires, resulting in hotter and slower fires that destroy the soil microorganisms and seeds. Conservation actions aiming to control alien species as well as preventive actions of human induced introductions are essential in order to pre vent the Cerrado species to disappear. Such actions are not simple, and there is a lack of long term experiments that integrate different field practices: ex. prescribed burns, herbicides, allelopathy, shading and native species re-seedling. It is also necessary to develop preventive efforts at different scales, ranging from education programs for farmers, to policy actions engaging decision-making institutions CERRADO ECORREGIONAL ASSESSMENT: USE OF SURROGATES FOR BIODIVERSITY AS A TOOL TO IDENTIFY TERRESTRIAL AND FRESHWATER PRIORITY CONSERVATION AREAS. DIEDERICHSEN, ANITA; Oren, David C.; Matsumoto, Marcelo. Central South American Savannas Conservation Program, The Nature Conservancy, SHIN CA 05, Conj. J, Bloco B, salas 301-309, Brasília, DF, 71.503-505, Brazil (adiederichsen((AT))tnc.org.br). The Cerrado ecoregion is very large, occupying over 20% of Brazil with a small portion extending into Bolivia and Paraguay. It is characterized as a savanna ecosystem, presenting high habitat diversity, with the highest herbaceous plant diversity among the world's savannas and an explosive rate of habitat loss due to conversion for agriculture and ranching. It is currently one of the most threatened ecoregions of South America. Lack of organized and uniform information for the entire area is also a daunting challenge. Given this scenario and the urgent need to develop strategies for the conservation of this ecoregion, systematic conservation planning in a short time frame, using surrogates for biodiversity, can be a useful tool. For the Cerrado terrestrial ecoregion we used the map of landscape units, and for the freshwater ecoregion we defined and mapped a classification of freshwater ecological systems. Through the application of these surrogates during workshops, the experts identified terrestrial priority conservation areas for Mato Grosso and the freshwater ecoregional priority conservation areas for the entire Cerrado terrestrial ecoregion area CONSERVATION OF SMALL MAMMALS FROM BRAZILIAN CERRADO: GENERA DISTRIBUTION AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURE IN THE DIFFERENT HABITATS. VIEIRA, EMERSON M.; Palma, Alexandre R. T. Laboratório de Ecologia de Mamíferos, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, 93022-000, Brazil, emersonmv((AT)) bios.unisinos.br (EMV). Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil; current address: Universidade Católica de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil (ARTP). We analyzed distribution patterns of rodents and marsupials and their association with distinct habitats of the Brazilian Cerrado. We used data gathered from published and unpublished sources. We included in the analysis (DCA) communities from 82 sites (17 areas), recording 28 genera. Differences between communities were not correlated with their geographic distance (p>0,4). Forests surrounding watercourses had higher a-diversity, whereas open areas had lower genera richness. Habitat type was the main factor determining community structure. These communities could be divided in three groups: 1) genera from savannic habitats (Thalpomys); 2) typically forest-dweller genera, including arboreal (Rhipidomys, Micoureus), semi-aquatic (Nectomys) and some cursorial ones (Proechimys); and 3) an intermediary group, with specialists in wet grasslands (Oxymycterus) and genera that also occur in other habitats (Gracilinanus, Bolomys). Relatively few genera were abundant in several areas and many restricted to a few sites. This pattern, and the high among-habitat b-diversity, reinforces the need for several protected areas in different regions for the adequate conservation of the mammalian diversity of Cerrado Society for Conservation Biology - Brasilia 2005 News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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