Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The importance of palm swamps for carbon storage in a multifunctional landscape in the Brazilian savanna

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Regional Environmental Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

With the intensification of agriculture and livestock in the Cerrado biome, the ecosystem services provided in this biome occur, in large part, in the fragments that make up multifunctional landscapes. In this context, this study aimed to investigate the following: (1) the importance of savannic ecosystems and abandoned pastures for carbon storage through soil organic carbon (SOC); (2) how microenvironmental differences can lead to variations in the SOC in each of these ecosystems. For this, environmental and biophysical data were collected in cerrado sensu stricto (s.s.), abandoned pastures, and palm swamps (veredas). The veredas had SOC contents six times higher than the cerrado s.s. and pastures. The main ecological factors related to SOC were the presence of xylophagous arthropods and the sum of bases (SB) in the cerrado s.s; saturation by aluminum (m) in pastures, and soil organic matter (SOM) in veredas. Soil moisture showed different relationships with SOC according to its ecosystem: neutral in the cerrado s.s., linear negative in the pastures, and positive exponential in the veredas. SOC storage in the first 30 cm of depth was approximately double in the veredas, but with a heterogeneous distribution. Therefore, specific microenvironments in veredas were important environmental assets for carbon storage in the multifunctional landscape. In this ecosystem, the exotic species Pinus caribaea indicated soil with lower carbon concentrations, and the microenvironments with more saturated soils were also more susceptible to variations in the SOC content.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: CBERS 4 (2019), made available by INPE (2019). Datum WGS84. Author: Pixel Inbox

Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and material

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for granting a scholarship; to Duratex for financing research and providing study areas. Dr. Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (ESALQ, USP), Dra. Ana Paula de Oliveira (IESA, UFG), Dr. Fabrício Pelizer de Almeida (UNIUBE), Dr. Lísias Coelho (ICIAG, UFU); professors Dr. Elias Nascentes Borges (LAMAS-ICIAG, UFU), Dr. Beno Wendling (LAPED-ICIAG, UFU), Dra. Araína Hulmann Batista (LAPED-ICIAG, UFU), Dr. Hudson de Paula Carvalho (LATEC-ICIAG, UFU), and Dr. Wedisson Oliveira Santos (LABAS-ICIAG, UFU) for making equipment, laboratories, and bibliographic material available, and colleagues Fernanda Ferreira and Lucas Henrique Clemente for their assistance in field or laboratory activities.

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES [Financing Code 001] e Duratex S.A.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Danúbia Magalhães Soares.

Ethics declarations

Competing interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Communicated by Anne Bousquet-Melou

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Soares, D.M., Nascimento, A.R.T., Alves, G.S. et al. The importance of palm swamps for carbon storage in a multifunctional landscape in the Brazilian savanna. Reg Environ Change 21, 116 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01854-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-021-01854-3

Keywords

Navigation