Advances in Understanding Land Cover/Land Use Changes for Biogeochemical and Hydrological Modeling
Diogenes
S
Alves, INPE, dalves@dpi.inpe.br
(Presenting)
Recent progress in understanding land cover/land use changes can be included among the most important LBA results. Here, we try to look at how these developments contributed to the modeling of carbon cycling and surface hydrology.
Detailed data about the spatial location of landscape changes, together with advances in the measuring and mapping of biophysical properties of vegetation and soils, helped to improve spatial correlations of forest clearing with vegetation, biomass and soil data, and contributed to improve carbon and hydrological modeling.
Understanding the different patterns of land use influencing the biogeochemical and hydrological cycles continues to be an important research topic. In particular, it is important to recognize land use practices that affect soil properties and carbon stocks. Uncertainties related to carbon emission factors and secondary growth still represent a challenge to reduce errors in annual emission estimates, despite some progresses in understanding inter-annual deforestation rates. Case studies helped understand some of the linkages between patterns of land use, nutrient cycling, second growth and other processes.
The intensification of agriculture in some regions has been pointed out as a major factor of landscape and ecological change. It could be argued, however, that intensification of both agriculture and cattle ranching needs to be better understood, in particular, for its biogeochemical and hydrological implications.
To conclude, advances in modeling deforestation are to be recognized within the framework of LBA and, also, by groups outside the experiment. In this aspect, one of the greatest challenges remains to include “human dimension factors” that would allow to improve models and formulate more plausible scenarios of land cover/use change.
Submetido por Diogenes Salas Alves em 17-MAR-2004
Tema Científico do LBA: LC (Mudanças dos Usos da Terra e da Vegetação)