Nature-based solutions are critical for putting Brazil on track towards net-zero emissions by 2050.

Most of the world's nations (around 130) have committed to reaching net-zero carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, yet robust policies rarely underpin these ambitions. To investigate whether existing and expected national policies will allow Brazil to meet its net-zero GHG emissions pledge by 2050, we applied a detailed regional integrated assessment modelling approach. This included quantifying the role of nature-based solutions, such as the protection and restoration of ecosystems, and engineered solutions, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.

Landscape changes in the Cerrado: Challenges of land clearing, fragmentation and land tenure for biological conservation.

Land clearing, low levels of protection, and high biodiversity make the Brazilian Cerrado a hotspot for biological conservation. However, one of the most active agricultural frontiers in Brazil is located in this region. We thus aimed to evaluate the current trends of deforestation and fragmentation of the Cerrado, from 1986 to 2019; and the contribution of land tenure and farm size to the Cerrado conservation.

More than 10,000 pre-Columbian earthworks are still hidden throughout Amazonia.

Indigenous societies are known to have occupied the Amazon basin for more than 12,000 years, but the scale of their influence on Amazonian forests remains uncertain. We report the discovery, using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) information from across the basin, of 24 previously undetected pre-Columbian earthworks beneath the forest canopy. Modeled distribution and abundance of large-scale archaeological sites across Amazonia suggest that between 10,272 and 23,648 sites remain to be discovered and that most will be found in the southwest.

Trophic dynamics of methylmercury and trace elements in a remote Amazonian Lake.

Information on pollutant trophodynamics can be crucial for public health, as contaminated food consumption may lead to deleterious effects. This study was performed in Puruzinho Lake, a remote body of water in the Brazilian Amazon from which a riparian human population obtains an important part of its animal protein intake. Samples from 92 individuals, comprising 13 species and four trophic guilds (iliophagous, planktivorous, omnivorous, and piscivorous fish) were analysed for the determination of trace elements (Fe, Cr, Mn, Ni, Zn, Ca, Sr, Cd, Sn, Tl and Pb) and methylmercury concentrations.

A near real-time web-system for predicting fire spread across the Cerrado biome.

Wildfires are aggravating due to climate change. Public policies need territorial intelligence to prevent and promptly fight fires, especially in vast regions like Brazil. To this end, we have developed a fire-spread prediction system for the Brazilian Cerrado, the biome most affected by wildfires in South America.

Distance decay 2.0 - A global synthesis of taxonomic and functional turnover in ecological communities.

Aim: Understanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology.

How sustainable is the nitrogen management in Brazil? A sustainability assessment using the Entropy Weight Method.

Nitrogen pollution is one of Brazil's most threatening and challenging environmental problems, caused mainly by productive activities aimed at meeting the demand of food, energy, and housing by a fast-growing population. Sustainable nitrogen management involves optimizing the beneficial effects of reactive nitrogen (N) use and, at the same time, mitigating the negative impacts of its excess on the environment and human health. Here we conduct an assessment of nitrogen sustainability in Brazil from 2000 to 2018 applying the Entropy Weight Method (EWM) to a set of nitrogen-related indicators within four subsystems: environmental, economic, social, and institutional.

Application of remote sensing to analyze the loss of natural vegetation in the Jalapão Mosaic (Brazil) before and after the creation of protected area (1970-2018).

This study aims to map the changes in land use and land cover between 1970 and 2018, analyzing the influence of the protected area s (PAs) in the Cerrado biome, specifically in the area of the Jalapão Mosaic. Images from the Landsat 1-MSS, 5-TM, and 8-OLI satellites were used and processed in SPRING and ArcGIS software. The analyses were based on three approaches: (1) the boundary of the Jalapão Mosaic, (2) the PAs, and (3) a comparison between the PAs and their surroundings.

Is domestic agricultural production sufficient to meet national food nutrient needs in Brazil?

Reducing the impacts of agriculture on the environment is one of the greatest challenges of this century. In Brazil, it is often argued that more land use change is needed to achieve food security. However, analyses seeking to understand the dynamics between agricultural production for exports and food intended for the Brazilian population have not approached the question if national agriculture is sufficient to provide Brazilians with the necessary nutrients, according to nutritional recommendations.

Large-scale variations in the dynamics of Amazon forest canopy gaps from airborne lidar data and opportunities for tree mortality estimates.

We report large-scale estimates of Amazonian gap dynamics using a novel approach with large datasets of airborne light detection and ranging (lidar), including five multi-temporal and 610 single-date lidar datasets. Specifically, we (1) compared the fixed height and relative height methods for gap delineation and established a relationship between static and dynamic gaps (newly created gaps); (2) explored potential environmental/climate drivers explaining gap occurrence using generalized linear models; and (3) cross-related our findings to mortality estimates from 181 field plots. Our findings suggest that static gaps are significantly correlated to dynamic gaps and can inform about structural changes in the forest canopy.

Resource availability and disturbance shape maximum tree height across the Amazon.

Tall trees are key drivers of ecosystem processes in tropical forest, but the controls on the distribution of the very tallest trees remain poorly understood. The recent discovery of grove of giant trees over 80 meters tall in the Amazon forest requires a reevaluation of current thinking. We used high-resolution airborne laser surveys to measure canopy height across 282,750 ha of old-growth and second-growth forests randomly sampling the entire Brazilian Amazon.

A worldwide meta-analysis review of restriction criteria for landfill siting using geographic information systems.

One of the most crucial parts of solid waste management is determining landfill site location, since multiple factors must be considered and there is no universal formula. The main purpose of this study is to make a worldwide systematic review of restriction criteria used for landfill siting using geographic information systems (GIS). Literature from the last years was thoroughly assessed, and 45 restrictions found were classified as environmental, economic, or social criteria.

Tropical peatlands and their contribution to the global carbon cycle and climate change.

Peatlands are carbon-rich ecosystems that cover 185-423 million hectares (Mha) of the earth's surface. The majority of the world's peatlands are in temperate and boreal zones, whereas tropical ones cover only a total area of 90-170 Mha. However, there are still considerable uncertainties in C stock estimates as well as a lack of information about depth, bulk density and carbon accumulation rates.

Preparing interdisciplinary leadership for a sustainable future.

Urgent sustainability challenges require effective leadership for inter- and trans-disciplinary (ITD) institutions. Based on the diverse experiences of 20 ITD institutional leaders and specific case studies, this article distills key lessons learned from multiple pathways to building successful programs. The lessons reflect both the successes and failures our group has experienced, to suggest how to cultivate appropriate and effective leadership, and generate the resources necessary for leading ITD programs.

Biological nitrogen fixation across major biomes in Latin America: Patterns and global change effects.

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) supports terrestrial primary productivity and plays key roles in mediating human-induced changes in global nitrogen (N) and carbon cycling. However, there are still critical uncertainties in our understanding of the amount of BNF occurring across terrestrial ecosystems, and of how terrestrial BNF will respond to global change. We synthesized BNF data from Latin America, a region reported to sustain some of the highest BNF rates on Earth, but that is underrepresented in previous data syntheses.

Modeling the potential distribution of Epiphyllum phyllanthus (L.) Haw. under future climate scenarios in the Caatinga biome.

The climate change projections for the Caatinga biome this century are for an increase in temperature and reduction in rainfall, leading to aridization and plant cover dominated by Cactaceae. The objective of this study was to model the potential distribution of Epiphyllum phyllanthus (L.) Haw.

A spatiotemporal database on the energy, macro and micro-nutrients from the Brazilian agricultural production.

To construct this database, we integrate the nutritional content of 62 crops and 5 livestock categories to estimate the amount of 21 macro and micro-nutrients (including energy) that were produced from agriculture in each Brazilian municipality during the last three decades. Additionally, we allocate these nutrients according to their share in the food system (for example, human food, animal feed, export etc.).

Refining national greenhouse gas inventories.

The importance of greenhouse gas inventories cannot be overstated: the process of producing inventories informs strategies that governments will use to meet emissions reduction targets. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) leads an effort to develop and refine internationally agreed upon methodologies for calculating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and removals. We argue that these guidelines are not equipped to handle the task of developing national greenhouse gas inventories for most countries.

Evaluating spatial coverage of data on the aboveground biomass in undisturbed forests in the Brazilian Amazon.

Background: Brazilian Amazon forests contain a large stock of carbon that could be released into the atmosphere as a result of land use and cover change. To quantify the carbon stocks, Brazil has forest inventory plots from different sources, but they are unstandardized and not always available to the scientific community. Considering the Brazilian Amazon extension, the use of remote sensing, combined with forest inventory plots, is one of the best options to estimate forest aboveground biomass (AGB).

A climate-change vulnerability and adaptation assessment for Brazil's protected areas.

Brazil hosts the largest expanse of tropical ecosystems within protected areas (PAs), which shelter biodiversity and support traditional human populations. We assessed the vulnerability to climate change of 993 terrestrial and coastal-marine Brazilian PAs by combining indicators of climatic-change hazard with indicators of PA resilience (size, native vegetation cover, and probability of climate-driven vegetation transition). This combination of indicators allows the identification of broad climate-change adaptation pathways.

Water Sustainability at the River Grande Basin, Brazil: An Approach Based on the Barometer of Sustainability.

Water resources are fundamental for the social and economic development of a country and sustainability is the best approach to treat water-related problems. Therefore, sustainability studies of water resources are deemed urgent. Sustainability analysis methods should enable space-temporal monitoring, decision-making, and development of policies necessary for water governance.

Limiting the high impacts of Amazon forest dieback with no-regrets science and policy action.

Large uncertainties still dominate the hypothesis of an abrupt large-scale shift of the Amazon forest caused by climate change [Amazonian forest dieback (AFD)] even though observational evidence shows the forest and regional climate changing. Here, we assess whether mitigation or adaptation action should be taken now, later, or not at all in light of such uncertainties. No action/later action would result in major social impacts that may influence migration to large Amazonian cities through a causal chain of climate change and forest degradation leading to lower river-water levels that affect transportation, food security, and health.