Water Related Ecosystem Services in Brazilian savannas, in landscapes of natural vegetation and eucalyptus plantations

• Autor(a) principal: Bispo, Giulia Baldaconi da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Texto Completo: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/41/41134/tde-27082019-103946/
• topic: Ecologia de paisagens; Ecosystem services; Environmental planning; Landscape ecology; LULC; LULC; Planejamento ambiental; Qualidade de água; Serviços ecossistêmicos; Water quality

The ecosystem services approach has increased throughout the years, becoming a powerful tool for environmental planning as well as guideline for resources management and decision-making. Changes in land use/cover are the main human-driven impact over natural ecosystems, which implies directly in ecosystem services provisioning capacity and the ability to sustain those benefits. Water resources are strongly related to human well-being and survival, as one of the most valuable benefits humans acquire from nature. In this regard, landscapes suffering from extreme or vast changes in land use/cover represent threats over water resources, as is the case for Brazilian Cerrado savannas. The prediction of impacts of land cover exchanges over water-related ecosystem services may become one way to avoid its loss, diminishing uncertainties in decision making of land uses. In this sense, our work aimed the measurement and recognition of thresholds that indicates changes in the availability of seven essential water-related ecosystem services, within Cerrado landscapes of São Paulo State, that are facing the conversion of native forests into eucalyptus plantations. We analyzed water resources at 11 low order catchments which comprised a gradient of forested savanna and eucalyptus plantations. Stream water quality data were obtained for 13 physical-chemical-biological parameters, previously known as indicators for seven water-related ecosystem services. Results highlight the importance of monitoring Turbidity, pH, electric conductivity as indicators of services provision. Best potential gains of the seven services occurred above 45% of natural forest coverage. Landscapes with less than 20% of forest tend to become too unsustainable