LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGES IN THE COASTAL ECOSYSTEM OF TERMINOS LAGOON, MEXICO

摘要

The Terminos Lagoon Ecosystem is one important reserve for the flora and fauna preservation in Mexico. In the present study we worked with satellite image analysis for the determination of the land use and land cover changes. The results indicate that the covers which present more losses in there original areas were the tropical forest and the mangrove, meanwhile the urban areas and the induced grassland had a considerable increase. The main cause of deforestation of the tropical forest and mangrove was the change to grassland and urban areas, but this loss was attenuated by the natural reforestation. The south-east area of the ecosystem was the most conserved one, where the major part of its territory was submerged and it had few communication ways. In the coastal area, the cover changes were mainly due by the increase of the urban areas and the infrastructure construction, meanwhile the east and south-east areas of the system showed a big impact on the original coverage, being characterised by the introduction of grassland.