The importance of restoration plantings, regenerated and degraded forests for the provision of ecosystem services linked to carbon and to the conservation of tree biodiversity

Author(s)

João Paulo Bispo Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2022-04-06

Examining board members

Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues; Ingrid Koch; Ricardo Augusto Gorne Viani

• Advisor: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues

Abstract

Unbridled deforestation has devastated tropical forests around the world. The fragmentation and isolation of habitats resulting from this process results in forests with different structural conditions, affecting the functioning of ecosystems, and thus, the provision of ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, pollination, among others. In this scenario, the restoration of native forests has been adopted worldwide as a possibility to reverse the losses and mitigate the damage resulting from human degradation. This study is one of the few that took into consideration a large spatial and temporal scale (forests of different ages) and, moreover, assessed in an integrated way different forest typologies (DEG - remnants of degraded primary forest, REG - natural regeneration or secondary succession and REST - active restoration) for the increase of above ground carbon stock and for biodiversity conservation. Data were collected in ten plots allocated to each typology (N=4), totaling 40 plots inserted in the domains of the Atlantic Forest biome. It was seen that DEG, REST and REG store high amounts of carbon in their aboveground biomass. This amount is highest in CON (131.5 Mg ha-1), followed by DEG (79.7 Mg ha-1), REST (51.9 Mg ha-1) and REG (29.1 Mg ha-1). Furthermore, we found that forests with better structural conditions store more carbon. About the total pool of sampled species (N= 454), CON (62 spp.) was the typology with the highest number of unique species. On the other hand, the number of unique species among DEG (36 spp.), REG (40 spp.) and REST (32 spp.) were similar. Although the typologies harbor a considerable number of species, the rarefaction curves showed that richness is different among them, being higher in CON (147 spp.), followed by DEG (123 spp.), REG (101 spp.) and REST (83 spp.). Floristic diversity was highest in CON (10.6) and DEG (9.7) and lower but similar between REST (5.22) and REG (5.16). No differences were found among all typologies in relation to phylogenetic diversity, that is, the measured values are similar among them. Also in this context, the floristic composition is different among the typologies, except between CON and DEG. We found that the high beta diversity measured for all typologies is almost entirely the result of turnover (>90%). In summary, our results indicate that DEG, REST and REG contribute considerably to atmospheric carbon sequestration and complement diversity and species richness in the landscape by decreasing species extinction, connecting habitats, and decreasing pressure on primary forests. All this reveals that it is necessary and urgent to create environmental protection policies that do not neglect these forests (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 20/08081-3 - New forests: potential and contributions to biodiversity conservation
• Grantee: João Paulo Bispo Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master