FORESTS REDISTRIBUTION ENHANCES LAND USE EFFICIENCY BUT IMPLIES ANTAGONIC RESPONSES WITHIN FOREST TYPES

GASPARRI, N. IGNACIO; GRAU, H. RICARDO; NANNI, A. SOFÍA

Beijing

Congreso; Global Land Project Open Science Meeting; 2016

Land use and land cover changes in LatinAmerica include both intensive agriculture expansion in the lowlands and reforestationin marginal areas. Thus, reforestation and deforestation occur, in general, at differentForest types. The consequences of such redistribution of forests over ecosystemservices and biodiversity are complex, and cannot be assessed by simply evaluatingnet cover change. We analyzed 20 years of land cover change in a 280000 hawatershed from northwest Argentina, and its consequences over forests carbon sequestration,soil retention and the diversity of large mammals and birds. Net Forest change was<1%.However, while 2.8% of mountain forests expanded over natural grasslands, 3.7% ofdry forests were converted to agriculture in the lowlands. Carbon sequestrationin forests also showed a redistribution, with carbon losses due to deforestationand degradation occuring in dry forests; and carbon gains through regrowth and forestsrecovery involving moist forests. Soil losses in the lowlands were also compensatedwith increased soil retention in montane forests. The responses of biodiversityto land use change were not homogeneous, since mammals were more sensitive to changeswithin forests, such as livestock density and carbon change; while birds respondedstrongly to Forest loss and fragmentation. Overall these changes derived inhigher food production without a proportional loss of other ecosystem services andbiodiversity. However, important qualitative changes can be expected from thesetrends, since the potential of different forests typesfor delivering ecosystem services and preserving biodiversity is not homogeneous.