What is it about?
Landscapes change over time as forests are cleared, fields are planted, and cities grow. This study tracks landscape pattern changes over a 25-year period across a biodiversity hotspot zone in southern Brazil, using satellite imagery and spatial metrics to document how the mosaic of forest, agriculture, and urban land has shifted. The results reveal accelerating fragmentation and forest loss, painting a detailed picture of how one of Brazil's most ecologically important regions has been transformed by human land use over a quarter century.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Long-term landscape change analyses are essential for understanding trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services. This 25-year assessment of a hotspot zone in southern Brazil provides a critical temporal baseline for conservation planning, documenting the scale and pace of change in one of the Atlantic Forest's most threatened zones. The findings have direct implications for forest restoration targets and land use governance in the region.
Perspectives
Tracing 25 years of landscape change through satellite imagery is like watching a slow-motion disaster unfold. The fragmentation and forest loss we documented in this hotspot zone are sobering, but also motivating. I hope this long-term perspective helps make the case for urgent and sustained conservation investment in the Atlantic Forest and similar hotspot zones across southern Brazil.
PhD Edivando Vitor do Couto
Technische Universitat Munchen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Landscape pattern changes over 25 years across a hotspot zone in southern Brazil, Southern Forests a Journal of Forest Science, February 2019, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.2989/20702620.2018.1542563.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
