An Approach to Verify Naturalness Loss and Its Relation with Ecosystems Services in Brazilian Cerrado: Implications to Management

摘要

Recent evidence suggests that Brazilian Cerrado has been largely converted, mainly due to agribusiness activities and urbanization. Thus, the present work aimed to obtain the diagnosis of a watershed characterized by the expansion of sugar cane fields in the Brazilian Cerrado (Southeastern), employing integrity landscape indicators (Hemeroby, Urbanity Index, Landscape Vulnerability Index, and Water Quality Index) to verify the landscape naturalness, and the consequences of these actions to the ecosystem services provision. Remote sensing data for the years 1998, 2008, and 2018 were employed to verify the land-use changes in the Feijão River watershed (southeastern Brazil), as well as a matrix that considers the land use typologies and their capability to provide ecosystem services. The study area is classified as mixed land use, with the main categories related to agribusiness (sugar cane, pasture, bare soil). The Hemeroby and Urban Index denote naturalness declines over the years, and the observed patterns negatively impact ecosystem service provision. Landscape Vulnerability Index and Water Quality Index demonstrated that remaining vegetation cannot effectively retain pollutants, and severe impairments in the resilience of natural components of key ecosystem service providers (i.e. water and native vegetation) were observed. The results allowed the identification of priority areas for recovery and the maintenance of ecosystem services in agricultural lands.