Variação espacial e temporal da biomassa vegetal em áreas de Cerrado

Abstract

A large portion of human population lives in savanna ecosystems around the world, and there is an historic coexistence with fire. The inadequate management of this kind of vegetation may have an influence on the energy, water and carbon balance at regional and global scales. Among the savannas worldwide, the Cerrado stands out by occupying a significant portion in South America holding high biodiversity, and because it is under strong anthropic pressure due to changes in land use. Given the current demand for studies that aim to reduce uncertainty about the role of vegetation in the global carbon cycle, this study aimed to analyze the spatial and temporal variation of plant biomass in the Cerrado. To do so, this thesis focused on a literature review and new data from fieldwork. The literature review showed that the shrubland and forestland formations from Cerrado hold significant stocks of carbon in the aboveground vegetation. On the other hand, grassland formations present a belowground/aboveground ratio of 3.3. The analysis of the relationship between precipitation and aboveground woody biomass for typical cerrado, highlighted the importance of seasonality in the localities where drought is severe (season length of five or six months). Therefore, changes in annual rainfall regimes predicted by the climate models can influence carbon stocks in these areas. As the literature survey revealed the lack of studies on belowground biomass in cerrado sensu stricto on Quartzipsamments field sampling was conducted in two sites on Quartzipsamments (Correntina and São Desidério). Carbon stocks (above and belowground) in these two sites were lower than in cerrado sites on Oxisols. The analysis of biometric parameters of the vegetation in cerrado sensu stricto in the core area of the biome, cerrado sensu stricto in areas of transition with tropical forest, and transition forest in the ecotone Cerrado/Amazon Rainforest highlighted the importance of transition forest in terms of carbon stocks. Furthermore, biomass of savanna formations is strongly correlated with the crown area and volume. These are promising results that can be used to calibrate automatic algorithms that detect canopy with satellite images. The improvement of this technique is an important step for the remote monitoring of the Cerrado at larger scales. The temporal variation analysis of aboveground wood biomass showed that the cerrado sensu stricto may stock or release carbon mainly depending on fire frequency. According to the observed results, we concluded that the occurrence of fires at intervals of five years does not compromise the maintenance of carbon stocks in vegetation. The continuation of such studies and long term monitoring can provide more precise results to evaluate the dynamics of the carbon sinks in the Neotropical savannas.