Carbon sequestration

a study of the spatial distribution in the Rio Canoinhas watershed

Abstract

The Rio Canoinhas Watershed (RCW) covers a surface of 1,663km², representing about 16% of the Santa Catarina North Plateau area. These regions were originally covered by natural ecosystems with predominance of Mixed Rain Forest, one of the forestry formations from the Mata Atlântica biome. The Araucaria Forest presents high levels of biodiversity and high capacity of forestry biomass production, and its wide distribution results in large carbon pools. The objective of this research is to verify the spatial distribution of the carbon stocks in the RCW. For this, maps of land use land cover from RCW were generated, using medium spatial resolution satellite images for the years of 2006, year of establishment of the Mata Atlântica Law, and for 2014. The carbon stock determination for the covers were realized by scientific literature review. Finally, these materials were utilized to generate spatial distribution carbon pool maps. As results, it was verified that the areas with native vegetation increased about 7.290 hectares, what represents an increase of 11%. The surface of forestry production with exotic species increased approximately 950 hectares, with a diminution in the use of species from the gender Pinus and increase of 519% in areas covered by species from gender Eucalyptus. Based on the generated information it was possible to evidence the paper of legal provisions for native vegetation conservation, as well as to identify the main areas of carbon storage in the RCW. The use of remote sensing techniques presents itself as an important tool for spatial analysis of Ecosystem Services (ES).

Keys words: Ecosystem Services. Remote Sensing. Araucaria Forest.