Florestas tropicais sazonalmente secas na perspectiva da ecologia de paisagens: uma análise geoambiental dos fragmentos de Caatinga no cariri paraibano

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Janaína Silva de
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFPB
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/123456789/30248
• topic: Geografia - Planejamento territorial; Caatinga; Componentes geoambientais; Conectividade estrutural; Ecologia de paisagens; Geography - Territorial planning; Geoenvironmental components; Structural connectivity; Landscape ecology; CNPQ::CIENCIAS EXATAS E DA TERRA::GEOCIENCIAS

The Caatinga is the largest and most isolated Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest in South America. Amid around humid forests, the endemic biome stands out for its geodiversity and biodiversity adapted to the semi-arid climate area. However, scientific research and public policies to the specificities of the Caatinga are incipient, where still prevails the common sense of a region with extreme social and landscape poorness. Located in the Caatinga biome, the Cariri region, state of Paraiba, is characterized by a historical process of land use and occupation composed of agriculture, subsistence farming and plant extractivism of native species, which has resulted in large extensions of areas susceptible to desertification and habitat fragmentation. This research was based on the hypotheses that analogous geoenvironmental components enable the maintenance of fragments with greater vegetation density, where geological structures become facilitating elements for the structural connectivity of the landscape. The verification of the hypotheses took place from the geographical precepts of Landscape Ecology, with the objective of analyzing the structural pattern of the landscape to propose connectivity models between fragments of Dense Caatinga of Cariri in Paraiba state. The map land use and land cover of the study area was carried out using the GEOBIA classification, with seven thematic classes: Hydrous body, Rocky outcrop , Anthropogenic Environment, Exotic Forest, Anthropized Caatinga, Rarefect Caatinga and Dense Caatinga. After statistical validation of the map, the landscape analysis was based on the dynamics of use and occupation of the territory and the application of landscape metrics. The results showed a pattern of distribution of the areas invaded by the Exotic Forest, with emphasis on the strips on the banks of tributary rivers of Paraíba; and alteration of the Caatinga by identified anthropogenic activities. Also noteworthy was the strong pressure on the cultural, geological and geomorphological heritage caused by the extraction of bentonite in the municipality of Boa Vista, where there is a proposal to create the Cariri Geopark. Despite this, the metrics revealed the low fragmentation of the Caatinga Rarefeita, analyzed as the dominant unit of the landscape according to the patch-corridor-matrix model. Dense Caatinga, on the other hand, showed high fragmentation, with the size of the patches not very expressive in the context of the landscape. The resulting modeling of the Integral Connectivity Index showed an alarming scenario, where the structural arrangement of the fragments highlighted by the metric do not travel through the matrix – and indicates the low effectiveness in the formation of stepping stones among the scattered spots in the landscape. The Conservation Units proved to be very important for the protection of the remnants of Caatinga Densa, although they present weaknesses in management. With an evident process of isolating these environments, lineaments of topographic heights and shear zones were identified as facilitating elements for the formation of ecological corridors, based on fractal theory, where geomorphological features of residual reliefs are repeated on a regional scale. In this way, it was concluded that the analyzed geo-environmental components can be incorporated as a strategy to territorial planning to discipline the use and occupation of land and connect relevant areas for environmental protection.