CARBON EMISSIONS FROM DEFORESTATION AND AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION IN THE GRAN CHACO 1985-2013

BAUMANN MATIAS; KUEMMERLE TOBIAS; GASPARRI N. IGNACIO; PIQUER-RODRIGUEZ MARIA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Cuarto Congreso Internacional de Servicios Ecosistémicos en los Neotrópicos: de la investigación a la acción; 2015

Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation are a key driver of climate change and have been studied extensively in the past, but emissions from deforestation of subtropical dry forests and savannas are less well understood, though potentially globally significant. One reason for that is that detailed land-use change information across large areas is missing. Here we provide a map of deforestation, agricultural expansion and agricultural deforestation for the entire Gran Chaco and an estimate of the carbon emissions from these land-use changes, by combining Landsat satellite classifications and a carbon bookkeeping simulation. Our results suggest that deforestation has been widespread in the Chaco between 1985 and 2013, reaching ~20% for the entire time period. Deforestation rates have been higher in the wet Chaco compared to the dry Chaco, and most of the deforestation in the wet Chaco was for pastures whereas in the dry Chaco, cropland expansion was more dominant. Associated carbon emission were high and comparable to those of other deforestation frontiers, e.g., in the Amazon. Overall, this suggests that the Chaco is a major contributor to globalcarbon emissions from land-use change.