Assessing the impact of three biosphere reserves on the conservation of coastal ecosystems.

Biosphere Reserves (BR) manage large territories with diverse natural covers and land uses to preserve biodiversity, promote local development and preserve ecosystems. This study evaluated how their zoning (buffer and core) and policy timeframes (decree period, management plan period, and land planning period) influence four landscape management outcomes: deforestation, natural cover recovery, and anthropic and natural permanence. For three Mexican BR case studies, land use and cover transitions were calculated and compared to contrafactual sites. Observed rates of land cover change were marginal within all three BR zoning and across their policy timeframe (<0.02 % change rate), suggesting that BR effectively promote the permanence of both natural and anthropic covers. Nevertheless, the predicted probability of uncommon deforestation and recovery outcomes at local levels showed that the effect of a BR over its regulated landscape is not spatiotemporally static, contrasting the effect of individual allocation vs a group or network. Poverty, land tenure, agriculture aptitude and distance to markets adds to this dynamic and is modelled and discussed. This study shows that BR zoning schemes and its regulatory sequence influence the rates of land cover change and the predicted probability of landscape management outcomes across space and time.

Transformation of Brazil's biomes: The dynamics and fate of agriculture and pasture expansion into native vegetation.

Land use and cover change (LUCC) in Brazil encompass a complex interplay of diverse factors across different biomes. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for informed decision-making and sustainable land management. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed LUCC patterns and drivers using 30 m resolution MapBiomas Collection 6.0 data (1985-2020). By mapping deforestation of primary and secondary natural vegetation, natural vegetation regeneration, and transitions between pasture, soybean, agriculture, and irrigation, we shed light on the intricate nature of LUCC in Brazil. Our findings highlight significant and increasing trends of deforestation in primary vegetation in the country. Simultaneously, the Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Pampa, and other regions of the Cerrado have experienced intensification processes. Notably, the pasture area in Brazil reached its peak in 2006 and has since witnessed a gradual replacement by soybean and other crops. While pasture-driven deforestation persists in most biomes, the net pasture area has only increased in the Amazon and Pantanal, decreasing in other biomes due to the conversion of pasturelands to intensive cropping in other regions. Our analysis further reveals that primary and secondary vegetation deforestation accounts for a substantial portion of overall forest loss, with 72 % and 17 %, respectively. Of the cleared areas, 48 % were in pasture, 9 % in soybean cultivation, and 16 % in other agricultural uses in 2020. Additionally, we observed a lower rate of deforestation in the Atlantic Forest, a biome that has been significantly influenced by anthropogenic activities since 1986. This holistic quantification of LUCC dynamics provides a solid foundation for understanding the impacts of these changes on local to continental-scale land-atmosphere interactions. By unraveling the complex nature of LUCC in Brazil, this study aims to contribute to the development of effective strategies for sustainable land management and decision-making processes.

Spatio-temporal analysis of the hydrological response to land cover changes in the sub-basin of the Chicú river, Colombia.

During the last years, in the sub-basin of the Chicú river, the agricultural and cattle exploitation has intensified and has depleted the water resources, thereby causing a deficit that has limited the continuity of such agricultural activity. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify land use and land cover changes contribute to the hydrological response to achieve sustainable management of the water resources in the sub-basin. In this sense, an integrated approach was used, which includes the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrological model and the different LUCC (Land use and cover change) maps obtained through tele-detection by using Landsat images to decide the hydrological response in the basin with the changes in land cover and uses in 1997, 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. As a result of the SWAT modeling, it can be noticed that the surface run-off varies according to the type of cover and extension, increasing or decreasing the water flow according to the characteristics of each cover, as in the case of bare lands (AGRL). While in 2006 it represented an area of 7.32% with a run-off of 39.25 mm, in 2001 its area decreased to 5.66% with a run-off of 44.9 mm. Moreover, in 1997 a flow of 4.45 m 3 / s can be observed, whereas in 2001 it decreases by 15% in the main current, which can be justified by a decrease of 8.8% in dense (FRSD) and fragmented (FRDT) forests. For 2006 and 2011 scenarios, the flow increases 13% and 50%, respectively, which corresponds to an increase of 36% and 48% concerning 2001 in clean grasses (PAST); despite the increase in clean grasses (PAST), the surface run-off was maintained almost constant above 9 mm, and it is thus considered a more stable vegetation cover.