Status of mangroves land use on the Brazilian Amazon coast from RapidEye imagery and GEOBIA approach.

Given the ecological and socioeconomic importance of the mangroves of the Brazilian Amazon coast, RapidEye satellite images were analyzed to recognize mangrove forest and salt flat changes to different land use through human activities. Results show that mangroves are still very well preserved, with less than 1% of the total converted to other uses, primarily urban areas and roads. These human activities have been the principal causes of use in the mangrove forest, driven by local anthropogenic pressures resulting from human settlements in the transition zone between the mainland and tidal flats.

The effect of anthropogenic drivers on spatial patterns of mangrove land use on the Amazon coast.

Mangroves play an essential ecological role in the maintenance of the coastal zone and are extremely important for the socioeconomics of coastal communities. However, mangrove ecosystems are impacted by a range of anthropogenic pressures, and the loss of this habitat can be attributed primarily to the human occupation of the coastal zone. In the present study, we analyzed the spatial patterns of land use in the mangrove of the Brazilian Amazon coast, and evaluated the anthropogenic drivers of this impact, using a remote sensing approach.

Recuperation of nitrogen cycling in Amazonian forests following agricultural abandonment.

Phosphorus (P) is generally considered the most common limiting nutrient for productivity of mature tropical lowland forests growing on highly weathered soils. It is often assumed that P limitation also applies to young tropical forests, but nitrogen (N) losses during land-use change may alter the stoichiometric balance of nutrient cycling processes. In the Amazon basin, about 16% of the original forest area has been cleared, and about 30-50% of cleared land is estimated now to be in some stage of secondary forest succession following agricultural abandonment.