1. Not only exotic grasslands: The scattered trees in cultivated pastures of the Brazilian Cerrado
- Author
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Tamilis Rocha Silva, Felipe Martello, G. M. Bettiol, João Carlos Pena, Daniel Luis Mascia Vieira, Edson Eyji Sano, Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Univ Fed Acre, and Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA)
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Biome ,Brazilian savanna ,Isolated trees ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Pasture ,Caryocar brasiliense ,Myracrodruon urundeuva ,geography ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,Ecology ,biology ,Agroforestry ,Sustainable livestock ,Silvopastoral systems ,04 agricultural and veterinary sciences ,biology.organism_classification ,Cerrado ecoregions ,Productivity (ecology) ,040103 agronomy & agriculture ,0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Pasture management ,Species richness ,Agronomy and Crop Science ,Fruit tree - Abstract
Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T15:04:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-07-01 Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF Cerrado grant) Research Program of Biodiversity (PPBio) from the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) Cultivated pastures occupy 30% of the Brazilian Cerrado. Most pastures have low productivity, demanding intensification. Pasture intensification, as conventionally proposed, promises conservation by land sparing. However, it does not embrace silvopastoral systems, a type of intensification that enhances carbon balance and in situ biodiversity conservation. In the Cerrado, silvopastoral systems would be easily established because pastures with native trees are commonly found in the landscape. In this study, we estimated the density of scattered trees using RapidEye satellite data in 200 cultivated pastures (48,519 ha). We also identified tree species by establishing 93 field plots distributed along 15 ecoregions in the Cerrado biome. We expected that the density of trees would vary in function of farm size, age of the pasture, intensification of pasture management and biophysical variables. Mean scattered tree density was 3.52 tree ha-1 (? 2.93 SD), and it was higher in ecoregions with lower and more concentrated rainfall. The most frequent tree species were those with high commercial values, such as the Myracrodruon urundeuva timber tree (aroeira) and the Caryocar brasiliense fruit tree (pequi). The average above-ground carbon stock of native Cerrado trees in pastures was estimated in 1.2 Mg ha-1 (? 1.2 SD). Our study shows that there are productive pastures with high tree density and species richness, which could be used as models for sustainable intensification strategies in different ecoregions of the Cerrado. Univ Brasilia, Dept Forestry Engn, BR-70297400 Brasilia, DF, Brazil State Univ Sao Paulo, Spatial Ecol & Conservat Lab, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Univ Fed Acre, BR-69915900 Rio Branco, AC, Brazil Embrapa Cerrados, BR-73301970 Planaltina, DF, Brazil Embrapa Recursos Genet & Biotecnol, BR-70770917 Brasilia, DF, Brazil State Univ Sao Paulo, Spatial Ecol & Conservat Lab, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP, Brazil Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF Cerrado grant): CEPF/02-2017/D3/7176-004
- Published
- 2021
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