MSc thesis research proposal Department of Geography McGill University Identifying the Role of Crop Production in Land Cover Change in Brazil since 1990

Major Ecosystems

1. 
   Amazonia or Amazon Forest: It is the largest forest formation on the planet and it is also the largest hydrographic network on earth covering 20% of the world’s fresh water reserves. This ecosystem, which is located in the North of Brazil, plays important roles as biodiversity repository and climate regulator conditioned by the humid equatorial climate (Fearnside 2001(b)). During the last few decades, the Amazon has been affected by the opening of highways, colonization and logging, mining and the advance of the agricultural frontier (Margulis 2003; Nepstad et al. 2006).
   
2. 
   Atlantic Rainforest or Mata Atlantica: According to Conservation International (CI)¹², this ecosystem is considered one of the top five biodiversity hotspots. It’s flora and fauna diversity contains different kinds of species of mammals, amphibians and birds. This ecosystem corresponds to 13.04% of the national territory, but nowadays only about 8.75% of the original forest cover remains as scarce patches due to the increased rate of deforestation (Galindo-Leal et al. 2003).
   
3. 
   Cerrado: It is the regional name given to the Brazilian tropical savanna located in the central highlands. The Cerrado is a mosaic of vegetation types with 23.92% from open grasslands. In the early 1970s this region was an inaccessible useless wasteland¹³. According to EMBRAPA, Brazil’s agricultural research organization, Cerrado was an undisturbed area for a long time because of inaccessibility and its extremely acid and poor soils. However, this situation changed with the development of new techniques to increase yields and profit in the Cerrado soils, which required extensive modification for crop production. The modification involves correcting low pH with limestone and improving fertility with corrective levels of fertilizers (EMBRAPA, 2004).
   
4. 
   Caatinga, which means White Forest in the native Indian language tupi-guarani, is the largest dry forest region in South America, characterized by fertile soils, irregular rainfall and semi-arid climate. This ecosystem is located in the Northeast coast between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado (Fig. 4). One of the major causes of its degradation has been extensive cattle-ranching, resource extraction, agriculture and subsistence farming¹⁴.
   
5. 
   The “Pantanal Mato-Grossense”, or swamplands of Mato Grosso, is the largest flooded area in South America and in the world. This ecosystem is delimited by the Brazilian Highlands to the east, the Mato Grosso Plains to the north, and by a chain of Andes hills to the west. The Brazilian Pantanal, with an extension of 150000 km², is covered by open vegetation such as savannah, gallery forest, seasonal semi-deciduous forest and Chaco. The main economy activity in this area is cattle ranching, and also cattle-raising on floodplain native grasslands¹⁷.
   
6. 
   Pampa: This ecosystem is known by several different names, including southern fields, campos sulinos, open savannah or grasslands. This region is characterized by flatland especially in the South of Rio Grande do Sul which extends to Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. Grazing is considered the main disturbance¹⁷.