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Brazilian Atlantic forest: impact, vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change

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Abstract

Biodiversity hotspots are among some of the habitats most threatened by climate change, and the Brazilian Atlantic forest is no exception. Only 11.6 % of the natural vegetation cover remains in an intensely fragmented state, which results in high vulnerability of this biome to climate change. Since >60 % of the Brazilian people live within the Atlantic forest domain, societies both in rural and urban areas are also highly vulnerable to climate change. This review examines the vulnerabilities of biodiversity and society in the Atlantic forest to climate change, as well as impacts of land use and climate change, particularly on recent biological evidence of strong synergies and feedback between them. We then discuss the crucial role ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change might play in increasing the resilience of local society to future climate scenarios and provide some ongoing examples of good adaptive practices, especially related to ecosystem restoration and conservation incentive schemes such as payment for ecosystem services. Finally, we list a set of arguments about why we trust that the Atlantic forest can turn from a “shrinking biodiversity hotspot” to a climate adaptation “hope spot” whereby society’s vulnerability to climate change is reduced by protecting and restoring nature and improving human life standards.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Pedro Eisenlohr for kindly offering us the opportunity to produce this paper, and two anonymous reviewers for significantly improving the quality of our manuscript with helpful comments and suggestions.

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  1. Fundação Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Rua Engenheiro Álvaro Niemeyer 76, São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, CEP 20070-022, Brazil

    Fabio Rubio Scarano

  2. Departamento de Ecologia, IB, CCS, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-590, Brazil

    Fabio Rubio Scarano

  3. Conservation International, Av. Rio Branco 131, sala 802, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, CEP 20040-006, Brazil

    Paula Ceotto

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Correspondence to Fabio Rubio Scarano.

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Communicated by Jefferson Prado, Pedro V. Eisenlohr and Ary T. de Oliveira-Filho.

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Scarano, F.R., Ceotto, P. Brazilian Atlantic forest: impact, vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change. Biodivers Conserv 24, 2319–2331 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-015-0972-y

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