The assessment of climatic, environmental, and socioeconomic aspects of the Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract

Background The Cerrado is the most biodiverse savanna and maintains other biomes. Aware of its significance, this paper evaluated the Brazilian Cerrado’s climatic, environmental, and socioeconomic aspects using remote sensing data and spatial statistics (correlation analysis and principal components analysis—PCA). Following the measures of sample adequacy (MSA) and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) tests, seventeen variables were evaluated. Results The MSA revealed that the dataset had a good quality (0.76), and nine variables were selected: elevation, evapotranspiration, active fires, Human Development Index (HDI), land use and land cover (LULC; shrubland and cropland/rainfed), rainfall (spring and autumn), and livestock. The correlation matrix indicated a positive (negative) association between HDI and autumn rainfall (HDI and active fires) with a value of 0.77 (− 0.55). The PCA results determined which three principal components (PC) were adequate for extracting spatial patterns, accounting for 68.02% of the total variance with respective values of 38.59%, 16.89%, and 12.5%. Due to economic development and agribusiness, Cerrado’s northern (central, western, and southern) areas had negative (positive) score HDI values, as shown in PC1. Climatic (rainfall—spring and fall) and environmental (cropland/rainfed and shrubland) aspects dominated the PC2, with negative scores in northern and western portions due to the transition zone between Amazon and Cerrado biomes caused by rainfall variability. On the other hand, environmental aspects (LULC-shrubland and elevation) influenced the PC3; areas with high altitudes (> 500 m) received a higher score. Conclusion Agricultural expansion substantially affected LULC, leading to deforestation-caused suppression of native vegetation.

Spatial heterogeneity in climate change effects across Brazilian biomes

“…Changes in land use and impacts of climate change have significantly impacted river flows in the Cerrado, with large-scale deforestation aimed at the production of irrigated agricultural commodities having a more significant impact on river flows than climate changes, as shown by 57 . Similar results for the biome were found in 66 , 67 .…”

“…The Cerrado biome in Brazil, often referred to as the world’s most biodiverse savanna, exhibits distinctive climatic features that significantly influence its unique ecosystem 105 , 106 . The climatic heterogeneity of this biome can be observed through the different Koppen classifications that encompass this biome.…”

Vegetation diversity pattern during spring season in relation to topographic and edaphic variables in sub-tropical zone

“…Species distribution modelling (SDM) is among the wide-ranging approaches used by contemporary ecologists, conservationists and forest managers to infer environmental variables (Khan et al 2022 ; Correia Filho et al 2023 ; Chandra et al 2023 ) influencing past, current, or upcoming species distribution pattern. Vegetation is the collective growth of plants combine together in a certain area that is the outcome interaction of many factors like elevation, topography, soil characteristics, species composition and biotic interferences (Ahmad et al 2014 ; Mandal and Joshi 2014 ; Abdo et al 2022 ).…”