Microclimatic analysis of mangroves in two distinct categories of Protected Areas and conserved status

Abstract

Mangrove forests provide essential ecosystem services to human communities, including climate regulation. In Brazil, the National System of Nature Conservation Units divides Protected Areas (PAs) into two categories: Full Protection (FP) and Sustainable Use (SU). The FP areas are composed of five categories, including National Parks, and the SU areas comprise seven categories, such as Environmental Protection Areas. The current research compared climatic attributes, leaf area index, and vegetation structure development in mangrove forests in two distinct categories of PAs (FP and SU) along the southern coast of the state of São Paulo (Brazil) to analyze the climatic conditions in different PA categories. A survey of the microclimatic attributes found that the conserved mangroves in the FP PA presented a) greater thermal stability in terms of the maximum, minimum, and mean air temperatures, and b) a better role of mangrove vegetation in (re)distributing the energy inside the forest. Therefore, it is affirmed that FP PAs play a fundamental role in maintaining the good conservation status of mangroves and, consequently, stabilizing the microclimate.

Impacts of Extreme Weather Event in Southeast Brazilian Mangrove Forest

“…Despite the region's conservation, studies have identified clearings in mangrove areas in the Iguape region due to the increase in invasive aquatic macrophytes in this sector that resulted from the opening of the Valo Grande canal [26]. In the northern section, microclimatic monitoring of mangroves has been occurring, with variations interpreted as an indicator of changes in mangrove structure at its edge and inside the ecosystem [27,28].…”

“…The equipment was programmed to register every 10 min. The current event was recorded only at the station located in the northern sector of the coastal system [27,28].…”

“…The occurrence of aquatic macrophyte banks around and within mangrove forests alerts to environmental changes due to the reduction in salinity, leading to possible losses of mangrove ecosystem services [37,38]. In addition, the microclimate, which has been monitored since 2008, shows that climatic attribute variations can be interpreted as an indicator of changes in the structure on the edge and inside the mangrove, like the more significant solar radiation input into the forest over the years [27,28].…”