Cropland expansion changes deforestation dynamics in the southern Brazilian Amazon

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - Tập 103 Số 39 - Trang 14637-14641 - 2006
Douglas C. Morton1, Ruth S. DeFries2,3,4, Yosio Edemir Shimabukuro5, Liana O. Anderson5,6, Egídio Arai5, Fernando Del Bon Espírito-Santo7, Ramon Morais de Freitas5, J. T. Morisette4
1Department of Geography, 2181 LeFrak Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
2*Department of Geography, 2181 LeFrak Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742;
3Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, 2207 Computer and Space Sciences Building, College Park, MD 20742;
4Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Mail Code 614.5, Greenbelt, MD 20771
5Divisão de Sensoriamento Remoto, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), Av. dos Astronautas, 1758 Jardim da Granja, São José dos Campos, SP 12227-010, Brazil;
6Oxford University Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
7Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Morse Hall, Durham, NH 03824; and

Tóm tắt

Intensive mechanized agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon grew by >3.6 million hectares (ha) during 2001–2004. Whether this cropland expansion resulted from intensified use of land previously cleared for cattle ranching or new deforestation has not been quantified and has major implications for future deforestation dynamics, carbon fluxes, forest fragmentation, and other ecosystem services. We combine deforestation maps, field surveys, and satellite-based information on vegetation phenology to characterize the fate of large (>25-ha) clearings as cropland, cattle pasture, or regrowing forest in the years after initial clearing in Mato Grosso, the Brazilian state with the highest deforestation rate and soybean production since 2001. Statewide, direct conversion of forest to cropland totaled >540,000 ha during 2001–2004, peaking at 23% of 2003 annual deforestation. Cropland deforestation averaged twice the size of clearings for pasture (mean sizes, 333 and 143 ha, respectively), and conversion occurred rapidly; >90% of clearings for cropland were planted in the first year after deforestation. Area deforested for cropland and mean annual soybean price in the year of forest clearing were directly correlated (R2= 0.72), suggesting that deforestation rates could return to higher levels seen in 2003–2004 with a rebound of crop prices in international markets. Pasture remains the dominant land use after forest clearing in Mato Grosso, but the growing importance of larger and faster conversion of forest to cropland defines a new paradigm of forest loss in Amazonia and refutes the claim that agricultural intensification does not lead to new deforestation.

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Tập 103 Số 39

14637-14641

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