Proposal of an integrated and operational framework for monitoring the quality of secondary forests dynamics in the Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 22/00166-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• End date: July 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Milton Cezar Ribeiro
• Grantee: Juliana Silveira dos Santos
• Supervisor: Duccio Rocchini
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università di Bologna, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 19/09713-6 - Proposal of an integrated and operational framework for monitoring the quality of areas in restoration process in the Atlantic Rain Forest, BP.PD

Abstract

The restoration of habitats should promote ecological functions to prevent the establishment of empty forests. In addition to identifying where are the priority areas for restoration and which are the limitations to secondary forests recovery, in the future, the main challenge will be to obtain information about the quality and functionality of the restored vegetation. Monitoring multiple sites of vegetation in situ is an expensive and time-consuming process, and, therefore, auxiliary information from remote sensors can be an efficient alternative to facilitate the acquisition of this information. In this context, our objective in this project is to generate an integrated and operational framework to monitor the quality of secondary forests at a large scale. Secondary forests and areas undergoing restoration in the Atlantic Rain Forest will be used as a model to compose this framework from pre-existing in situ information. We will assess the relationship between spectral traits and ecological indicators and identify the relationship between the secondary forest dynamics and the level of landscape hemeroby. With this project, we will define for the first time a framework based on in situ and orbital data at a large scale for the monitoring of quality of secondary forests in Brazil. Then, we will generate functional information of the vegetation from free orbital technologies, which are reliable and may be an option to technologies that require specific knowledge and analyses (e.g., LIDAR) and may compromise a large-scale monitoring. (AU)