Forest Clearing by Slash and Burn

Beck, Erwin; Hartig, Katja; Roos, Kristin

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73526-7_35

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…New pastures are established for three main reasons: (i) to counterbalance the fertility loss of old paddocks with low stock rates; (ii) to increase production [8]; and (iii) because of the invasion of bracken fern (Pteridium arachnoideum and Pteridium caudatum) [43][44][45].…”

Section: Land Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The clearing of more land than farmers can hold under use (due to labor scarcity or other household factors) leads to the establishment of bracken-dominated vegetation [37], mostly found in the steepest areas [34,36]. Once the soil cools down, farmers quickly plant pasture grasses, given that about three weeks after fire bracken fern sprouts vigorously [45]. If the emerging bracken sprouts are not eliminated, they will expand, making their eradication very time-consuming and labor-intensive [63].…”

Section: Land Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bracken fern expands rapidly where burnt areas or poorly maintained pastures exist and where it has competitive advantages. Its lower invasion rate in steeper areas corresponds to the relatively open canopy of bracken's horizontal-oriented fronds, which facilitate the penetration of wind-dispersed seeds from competitor species and light [44,45,101]. …”

Section: Land Cover Change In Relation To Distance From Roads Altitumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other socioeconomic studies from this area found a strong relationship between land cover change and private land tenure systems, cattle ranching, and decrease of local traditional ecological knowledge on plant use [34,36,43]. Moreover, a recurrent problem recognized in all the studies is the invasion of bracken fern (Pteridium arachnoideum and Pteridium caudatum), a fire-resistant and very competitive weed [38,[44][45][46] that colonizes unused burnt or inactive pasture areas, or even active pastures [44][45][46]. Bracken invasion frequently leads to pasture abandonment, which takes the area out of the production process, degrades ecosystem functions and services, and threatens the remaining natural forest [47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Land Cover Change in the Andes of Southern Ecuador—Patterns and Drivers

et al. 2015

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Abstract:In the megadiverse tropical mountain forest in the Andes of southern Ecuador, a global biodiversity hotspot, the use of fire to clear land for cattle ranching is leading to the invasion of an aggressive weed, the bracken fern, which is threatening diversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services. To find sustainable land use options adapted to the local situation, a profound knowledge of the long-term spatiotemporal patterns of land cover change and its drivers is necessary, but hitherto lacking. The complex topography and the high cloud frequency make the use of remote sensing in this area a challenge. To deal with these conditions, we pursued specific pre-processing steps before classifying five Landsat scenes from 1975 to 2001. Then, we quantified land cover changes and habitat fragmentation, and we investigated landscape changes in relation to key spatial elements (altitude, slope, and distance from roads). Good classification results were obtained with overall accuracies ranging from 94.5% to 98.5% and Kappa statistics between 0.75 and 0.98. Forest was OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2015, 7 2510 strongly fragmented due to the rapid expansion of the arable frontier and the even more rapid invasion by bracken. Unexpectedly, more bracken-infested areas were converted to pastures than vice versa, a practice that could alleviate pressure on forests if promoted. Road proximity was the most important spatial element determining forest loss, while for bracken the altitudinal range conditioned the degree of invasion in deforested areas. The annual deforestation rate changed notably between periods: ~1.5% from 1975 to 1987, ~0.8% from 1987 to 2000, and finally a very high rate of ~7.5% between 2000 and 2001. We explained these inconstant rates through some specific interrelated local and national political and socioeconomic drivers, namely land use policies, credit and tenure incentives, demography, and in particular, a severe national economic and bank crisis.

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Section: Land Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Land Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Land Cover Change In Relation To Distance From Roads Altitumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Land Cover Change in the Andes of Southern Ecuador—Patterns and Drivers

et al. 2015

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“…No entanto, a espécie pode sobreviver em ambientes sombreados, propagando-se por esporos e por rizomas de vida longa, mas é suscetível a invernos rigorosos e geadas (Marrs & Watt, 2006). Registros de invasão: Apesar de considerada cosmopolita, o gênero é reportado como invasor na região do Andes, no sudeste do Equador (Beck et al, 2008), na Inglaterra e no México (Colleen, 2011). No Brasil existem estudos descrevendo o gênero como invasor na Floresta Estacional Semidecidual (Silva, Matos & Belinato, 2010;Portela et al, 2009;Silva & Matos, 2006) e no Cerrado (Matos, Xavier, Tiberio, & Marrs, 2014;Miatto, Silva, Matos, & Marrs, 2011;Pinheiro & Durigan, 2009 Origem: Nativa do Himalaia e Sul da China.…”

Section: Descrição Das Espéciesunclassified