Effects of the agricultural frontier advance on biodiversity: studying the loss of small non-flying mammal species from potential habitat loss modeling

• Grant number: 17/20011-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Silvana Amaral Kampel
• Grantee: Silvana Amaral Kampel
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: São José dos Campos
• Associated researchers: Tainá Oliveira Assis

Abstract

The world population has grown over time and, due to this fact, it is necessary to increase food production. To meet this demand, an increase in agricultural production is required, which often occurs in the expansion of its frontier over areas of native forests. This process leads to, among other things, loss of habitat, landscape fragmentation and, as a consequence, loss of biodiversity. However, there is no estimate of how much is lost in this process and how its continuity would affect the remaining biodiversity. This project aims to understand how the community of small non-flying mammals changes over time due to the transformation of the landscape caused by the agricultural frontier advance over the Brazilian savanna (cerrado), using computational modeling. To answer this question, the project will be based on the collection of biological and spatial data, representing in agent-based modeling how this dynamic between community and environment occurs. In this context, the project proposes a methodological approach to simulate the behavior of the fauna of small non-flying mammals and their perception about the habitat so that the modeling process occurs in conformity with the knowledge about the biology of the species. Parallel to this, the project will recover the historical series of the land use and cover changes to understand the process of habitat transformation and to construct the spatial model. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

ASSIS, TAINA OLIVEIRA; SOBRAL ESCADA, MARIA ISABEL; AMARAL, SILVANA. Effects of Deforestation over the Cerrado Landscape: A Study in the Bahia Frontier. LAND, v. 10, n. 4, APR 2021. (17/20011-8)

ASSIS, TAINA OLIVEIRA; CACERES, NILTON CARLOS; PASSAMANI, MARCELO; AMARAL, SILVANA. Scale and representation of landscapes in mammal studies in Brazil. ACTA OECOLOGICA-INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, v. 114, p. 8-pg., 2022-02-09. (17/20011-8)