Landscape Structure at Different Altitudes in Dry Areas

Abstract

The objective was to analyze the forest landscape structure of fragments at different altitudes in dry region. In order to do so, RapidEye images acquired in the year of 2014 were segmented, identified the Forest and Other uses classes and classified. Categorical maps were made and inserted in raster format in the Fragstats software, and text files were generated for calculations of class-level metrics and landscape-wide and then analyzed. The results of the parameters determined that the most affected and fragmented environments are those with lower altitudes, because of the forest cover of these environments is under strong pressure, since they are surrounded mainly by the Agropecuarian class, providing more susceptibility to fragmentation and external influences. Therefore, using the metrics together it was verified that there is a high shredding and this shredding has relation with the altitudinal gradient, since the lower the altitude, the lower the connectivity and thus the lower forest cover.