1 – Summary of Activities carried out between October-2000 and October-2001
Three doctors and two master students are developing their thesis and dissertations in remnants located in some FPZ (first priority zones for conservation). One of them is developing a model to minimize cerrado misclassification when satellite image is used. Other one is calibrating field biomass measurements with vegetation indices. The third doctor student is evaluating the level of pressure of each land use type over cerrado remnants. One of the master student is evaluating the recreational carrying capacity. The other one is studying the effects of a sustainable development project over a human settlement located in cerrado area.
Next step will be the application of some landscape ecology indices over the visited remnants, and conclude the conservation stage of each remnant, together with the Botany team.
So far, the team visited 23 FPZ from A to V, plus 3 extra areas, 116 remnants were studied in detail, 558 cerrado species were identified. There still are some species to identified which may give an increase in that number later on.
Dr. Giselda Durigan went to Edimburgh to stay 3 month, at the Royal Botanic Garden of Edimburgh, to improve a conservation value index, which will be applied to our remnants.
That team went to the field between October
and November/2000 to raise the landowners profiles. They are studying in
detail the FPZ A, B, C, D and G. Right now they are raising data from governmental
offices to produce their first full report.
That step depends on the activities of the
previous teams and is expected to be more active next year. By now the
team is only participating in field trips of the economic team and attending
meetings.
So far, we correct the area and the physiognomy of al 116 cerrado remnants. With that analyses, the team registered a lost of 34% of the cerrado area studied, in the state of São Paulo, from Kronka et al. 1993 to now-a-days.
Seven FPZ (F, I, J, K, L, N, and O) and five remnants of the S FPZ were confirmed not to be cerrado physiognomies but Semidecidual Seasonal Forest. One remnant, in A FPZ, is strictly Gallery Forest, although that physiognomy is commonly mixed with cerrado, in several remnants. Two FPZ (U and V) are strictly ecotone with cerrado and semidecidual seasonal forest.
Some conservation (C) and degradation (D) indicators were registered in the field in order to get a hint of the conservation stage. The partial result is:
It has been quite difficult to find, in Brazil,
botanical descriptions of the species, to correctly identifying the specimens.
The way to solve: publishing, as sooon as possible, the "Flora fanerogâmica
do Estado de São Paulo". It has been difficult, also, to find specimens
at herbaria of São Paulo state, to compare and identify some plant
materials we collected. The way to solve: repatriation of images, at least,
or information about plant species occurring in São Paulo state,
and which types are depposited in herbaria in other countries.
3 – Indicate geographical gaps knowledge within the taxonomic(s) groups(s) you are working with and suggest ways of solving this problem.
Considering cerrado vegetation in São Paulo state, there are some regions where few or none botanical collections were made before, including: Vale do Paraíba, Baixo Paranapanema, Bacia do Rio Grande (border with Minas Gerais). The way to solve: priority to survey projects in those regions, to improve herbaria collections.