Effect of Land Cover Change on Atlantic Forest Fragmentation in Rio Largo, Al, Brazil
Lucas Galdino da Silva *
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
Arthur Costa Falcão Tavares
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
Carlos Frederico Lins E. Silva Brandão
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
João Pedro dos Santos Verçosa
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
Raquel Elvira Cola
Department of Forest Science, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.
Nivandilmo Luiz da Silva
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
Anderson Arthur Lima dos Santos
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
Anne Carolyne Silva Vieira
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
José Feitosa da Silva Neto
Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus, Federal University of Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil.
Mayara Dalla Lana
Federal Institute of Pernambuco, Garanhus, PE, Brazil.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This study's objective was to analyze the effect of land cover change, between 1965 and 2018, using statistical metrics and geoprocessing tools. And consequently, to provide information of area (ha) and spatial fragmentation of the Atlantic Forest in the municipality of Rio Largo/AL, Brazil. The samples were collected and transferred by CECA, CADEH, and INCRA, between November 2019 and April 2020. The basic materials used in this work were multi-temporal aerial images in digital format, derived from the 1965 aerophotogrametric survey on the scale 1:25000, belonging to the collection of the Engineering and Agrarian Sciences Campus - UFAL, and images of Landsat satellites (5 and 8) processed and made available by the Mapbiomas Project. The statistic landscape metrics were calculated using Landscape ecology Statistics (LECOs), a QGIS plugin. The analysis of forest fragmentation areas over the 53 years showed a reduction between 32.17% (1965) and 12.04% (2018) concerning the total extension of the municipality. In 1965, the average area obtained from 49 fragments was 201.13 ha. The values show a higher distance of forest fragments between 1965 and 1989, and disappearance by 2018.The Pearson correlation coefficient for 1965 and 2018 presented the value of r = -0.525, indicating a moderate and negative correlation between the mean values of areas (ha) of forest fragments and the number of forest fragments. The worst-case scenario for the maintenance of native forests occurred in 1989, where the reduction of continuous forest areas had 10.87 ha for forest area average, being spaced in 327 fragments. In the period 1986 and 1996, there was a decrease in fragmentation, reaching 200 fragments. In 1996 and 1997, there was an imbalance in forest maintenance, again increasing the number of fragments to 250 areas, and being explained by the loosening of surveillance in previous years, followed by deforestation.
Keywords: Forest fragmentation, multi-temporal analysis, geoprocessing