Central Fluminense Mosaic of Parks and Reserves (Mosaico Central Fluminense) - Brazil

Covers an elevational gradient from 0 to 2,200 m in the Serra dos Órgãos mountain range, with high elevation grasslands (campos de altitude), cloud and lowland rainforests in the Atlantic Forest biome. In the lowlands it includes fragmented landscapes due to deforestation occurred in the last 500 years, with a variety of land uses in the matrix were fragments are inserted. Long term studies and monitoring actions focus on the effects two main factors: effects of climate change and land use. Presents high species richness, embracing a National Park (Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos), a state park (Parque Estadual dos Três Picos), a private reserve (Reserva Ecológica Guapiaçu), and other federal and state protected areas.

Last modified

2020-06-29 10:06:10

General Characteristics, Purpose, History

Site Status

Operational

Year Established

1997

Purpose

The main purpose of the Central Fluminense Mosaic of Parks and Reserves is to understand the effects of climate change and land use on the levels of biodiversity of costal Atlantic Rainforest. To achieve this purpose we aim to improve our knowledge on how extrinsic and intrinsic factors regulate ecological populations and communities in time and space through natural and human modified environments. How species are distributed along natural and disturbed gradients? Which factors are affecting their distributions? Do species distributions vary as a function of habitat heterogeneity and disturbance frequency, or species traits (e.g. physiological tolerance, dispersion hability)? How different levels habitat isolation and connectivity influence the occurrence minimal viable populations of different species? Which species are more prone to extinction given the effects of climate and land use change? How taxonomic and functional diversity will behave in response to these changes? These are some of specific questions that the Central Fluminense Mosaic of Parks and Reserves site is aimed to answer.

History

The oldest protected area of this ILTER site is the Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, a National Park created in 1939 for its scenic beauty, but also the one of the most studied national parks of Brazil. Other protected areas were created to protect one the largest Atlantic Forest remnants and water resources, and many animal, plant groups and ecosystem processes have been studied in the region. An explicit focus on long term studies started in 1997 with a bimonthly monitoring program of small mammal populations carried in the Garrafão, a locality within the National Park. With the formal establishment as an LTER site in 2012, other research groups already acting in the area joined the initiative, all with a focus on long term studies to evaluate effects of climate change and land use. In the lowlands, at the base of the Serra dos Órgãos mountain range, human land use lead to fragmented landscape, where studies focusing on land use effects are developed.

Research Topics

environmental science