Fragmentação da vegetação nativa do bioma Amazônia em área de fronteira agrícola consolidada no norte de Mato Grosso

Abstract

The aim of this work was to analyze the process of fragmentation of the native vegetation cover within a consolidated agricultural frontier in the north of Mato Grosso State, close to the border of Para State. The studied region received the majority of the private settlements projects established around the BR-163 in the north of Mato Grosso in the last years of 1970. That region circumscribes a large stripe of land that extends for 400 km long from the Itaúba County at south to Paranaíta at northwest. The native vegetation cover was classified according to the RADAMBRASIL vegetation map. The landscape process of fragmentation was analyzed by means of a set of spatial analysis metrics covering a series of 14 years (1992-2010). Boolean overlay between the native vegetation cover and the series of incremental deforestation maps were performed in order to obtain the annuals fragments. The results showed that fragmentation has reduced drastically the size of the remaining fragments of the native vegetation cover, has increased exponentially the number of the fragments in the landscape, as much as has gradually increased the distance between the fragments of the same vegetation class. Taking as whole, such a metrics show the local elimination vegetation classes in the landscape and lost of structural connectivity among its remnants. Those findings can contribute with a previsional model for the expansion zones of agricultural frontier at Amazon region, especially for the cases where the legally specified protected areas in rural properties were not respected. Abstract: