Biodiversity Implications of Forest Disturbance and Related Landscape Dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon Mark A. Cochrane 1,2, David P. Roy 1, Carlos Souza Jr. 2, Jos Barlow 3, Eugenio Arima 4, Izaya Numata 1, Christopher P. Barber 1,2, Juliana Silveira, Luiz Mestre 1, Rafael Andrade 1, and Sanath Kumar Sathyachandran 1 1 Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD USA 2 IMAZON, Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia, Belém, PA Brazil 3 Lancaster University, Lancaster United Kingdom 4 Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva NY USA
What is the project? The fundamental hypothesis underlying this project is that the biodiversity levels of Amazonian forests are strongly related to two competing factors: forest disturbance and time since last disturbance
The Brazilian Amazon Amazon humid tropical forest biomes: ~ 6.4 km 2 Portion in Brazil: ~ 4 km 2 Source: WWF
Human Access to Forest Source: IBGE, IMAZON 85% of deforestation within 50 km of main roads 73,000 km of official roads in region 240,000 km of unofficial roads Expansion rates > 40 km / 10,000 km 2 / year
Barlow et al PNAS Selecting effective biodiversity indicators Mostly territorial or habitat specialists Necessary attributes of sampled taxa: Sensitive indicators of changes in forest integrity Can be surveyed cost effectively
Sampling Birds – Mist Nets and Point Counts
MEASURING We measure: Wings Wings Tarsus Tarsus Bill Bill Weight WeightParasites
Project Design A large-scale comparison of effects of fire on Amazonian bird communities. A long-term comparison of effects of fire on Amazonian bird communities. One of the best overviews of Amazonian bird communities in different Amazonian States. A total of 2,400 birds (354 species) have been captured, identified, banded and sampled for parasites
Sampling Ants Pitfall traps supplemented with Winkler traps were used to sample 50 x 50 cm collections of litter 4,800 + specimens collected, identification ongoing
Sampling Dung Beetles - Baited pitfall traps (human faeces) - 5 traps per transect, run for 4 days. - Follows methods discussed at global Scarabnet meetings, and used effectively in many Amazonian studies - Complemented by un-baited flight intercept traps -A total of >5,200 beetles collected, species identification ongoing…
Fire-mediated dieback and compositional cascade Barlow and Peres ,400 trees (final identification is ongoing)
Turnover in composition of tropical forest trees and saplings in once- and thrice-burned forests in Pará TreesSaplings
Fire scars on tropical trees: Exploring the cryptic fire history of the Isla de Maracá ABC DE (Barlow et al. 2010)
NDFI images on 05/17/2010 Period: Region: WWF Biome At IMAZONAt SDSUNo imagery Basin-wide Analyses
Image Processing Steps Shade Soil NPV GV Image Registration Radiance Conversion Correct Haze? Atmospheric Correction (ACORN) Yes No Estimate Visibility and water vapor Apply Carlotto’s Technique (1) PRE-PROCESSING Landsat Reflectance Space Pixel Purity Index - (PPI) Visualization Scatter matrix Spectral curves 40 million pixels (2) Build Spectral Library Generic Image Endmembers SVDC (3) SMA Landsat NDFI (4) Enhance and Detect Canopy Damage Extract Patios CCA Canopy Damage Soil ≥ 10% 1 pixel ≤ Area ≤ 4 pixels NDFI ≤ 0.75 GV + NPV + Soil + Shade = 1 Souza Jr. et al. (2005), RSE
NDFI 226/ (Sinop - MT) Roads Logged Forest
NDFI 226/ (Sinop - MT)
NDFI 226/ (Sinop - MT)
NDFI 226/ (Sinop - MT)
(S.Kumar & D.Roy)
Conservation Unit Performance Integration of disturbance factors to evaluate the performance all of the protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Ability to evaluate by protected area type, age since creation, development pressure (deforestation, logging, fire)
Characterizing Forest Fragmentation
Age map Derived from Landsat time series Used for calculation of fragmentation features Forest Pasture S.G.Forest Time series Land cover mapAge map >22 ys 1 y 2 ys 3 ys 4 ys 5 ys 6 ys 7 ys 8 ys 9 ys 10 ys 11 ys 12 ys 13 ys 14 ys 15 ys 16 ys 17 ys 18 ys 19 ys 20 ys 21 ys
Persistence of Forest Edge (Campo Novo de Rondonia) Remaining edge % (Numata et al. 2009)
Biomass Dynamics Dynamics of: a) remaining forests, b) edge-biomass loss, and c) edge-carbon emission in 1988, 1998, and (Numata et al. in press)
This Year’s Project Objectives 1) Develop a basin-wide spatial database of all forest disturbance (selective logging, fragmentation, fire, deforestation) from , based on NDFI analyses of annual Landsat imagery. 2) Derive regional estimation functions of expected biodiversity similarity based on disturbance history (disturbance metric) and time-since-last- disturbance (resilience metric) derived from stratified field data collected for four separate taxa (woody plants, birds, dung beetles and ants). 3) Develop a basin-wide spatial and temporal datasets of all fires by type (1) deforestation fires; 2) maintenance fires; 3) forest fires, using MODIS and Landsat data. 4) Model economic, physical-geographic and land cover factors affecting fire ignition and spread from to create probability surfaces of fire ignition and fire spread. 5) Create a basin-wide map of probable biodiversity alterations in current standing forests across the Brazilian Amazon and predictions of future changes in these conditions over the next 10 years ( ) based on likely economic and climate scenarios. (Starting late 2009)
Project Publications Boschetti L. and D.P. Roy Strategies for the fusion of satellite fire radiative power with burned area data for fire radiative energy derivation, Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres 114: Article Number D Mestre, L.A.M., J. Barlow, G. Thom, and M.A. Cochrane Burned Forests as Novel Habitats for the Back-faced Cotinga Conioptilon mcilhennyi in the Western Brazilian Amazon. Ornitologia Neotropical 20: Numata, I., M.A. Cochrane, D.A. Roberts and J.V. Soares Determining Dynamics of Spatial and Temporal Structures of Forest Edges in Southwestern Amazonia Using Multitemporal Remote Sensing Data. Forest Ecology and Management. 258: Numata, I., M.A. Cochrane, D.A. Roberts, J.V. Soares and C.M. Souza Jr. (In press). Biomass Collapse and Carbon Emissions from Forest Fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences. Barlow, J., J.M. Silveira and M.A. Cochrane. (In press). Fire Scars on Amazonian Trees: Exploring the Cryptic Fire History of the Ilha de Maracá. Biotropica. Mestre, L.A.M., J. Rechetelo, J. Barlow, M.A. Cochrane. (In Press) The Birds of “São Luiz” Farm, South Amazon, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Boletim Do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi. Mestre, L.A.M., G. Thom, J. Barlow, M.A. Cochrane. (In Press) The Birds of “Reserva Extrativista Chico Mendes”, South Acre, Brazil. Boletim Do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi. Bowman, D.M.J.S., J.K. Balch, P. Artaxo, W.J. Bond, J.M. Carlson, M.A. Cochrane, C.M. D’Antonio, R.S. DeFries, J.C. Doyle, S.P. Harrison, F.H. Johnston, J.E. Keeley, M.A. Krawchuck, C.A. Kull, J.B. Marston, M.A. Moritz, I.C. Prentice, C.I. Roos, A.C. Scott, T.W. Swetnam, G.R. van der Werf and S.J. Pyne Fire in the Earth System. Science 324: Cochrane, M.A. and C.P. Barber Future Fire Regimes of the Amazon: Climate Change and Human Land Use. Global Change Biology 15:
Project Publications Barlow, J. and J.M. Silveira The Consequences of Fire for the Fauna of Humid Tropical Forests. Pp in M.A. Cochrane, ed. Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics. Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany. Cochrane, M.A. 2009b. Fire in the tropics. Pp in M.A. Cochrane, ed. Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics. Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany. Cochrane, M.A. 2009c. Fire, Landuse, Landcover Dynamics and Climate Change in the Brazilian Amazon. Pp in M.A. Cochrane, ed. Tropical Fire Ecology: Climate Change, Land Use and Ecosystem Dynamics. Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany. Gardner, T.A., J. Barlow, R. Chazdon, R. Ewers, C.A. Harvey, C.A. Peres and N.S. Sodhi Prospects for Tropical Forest Biodiversity in a Human-modified World. Ecology Letters 12 doi: /j x Barlow, J. and Peres, C.A Fire-mediated dieback and compositional cascade in an Amazonian forest. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B. 363: doi: /rstb Cochrane, M.A. and W.F. Laurance Synergisms Among Fire, Land Use, and Climate Change in the Amazon. AMBIO 37: Roy, D.P., Boschetti, L., Justice C.O., Ju, J., 2008, The Collection 5 MODIS Burned Area Product - Global Evaluation by Comparison with the MODIS Active Fire Product, Remote Sensing of Environment, 112: Boschetti, L. and Roy, D.P., 2008, Defining a fire year for reporting and analysis of global inter-annual fire variability, Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences, 113, G03020, doi: /2008JG Loveland, T.R., M.A. Cochrane and G.M. Henebry Landsat Still Contributing to Environmental Research. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23: