Correction published on 24 October 2019, see
Remote Sens. 2019, 11(21), 2491.
Assessing Pasture Degradation in the Brazilian Cerrado Based on the Analysis of MODIS NDVI Time-Series
1
The Nature Conservancy Brazil, SCN Quadra 05 Bloco A Sala 1407—Torre Sul, Brasília 70715-900, DF, Brazil
2
Instituto de Estudos Sócio-Ambientais, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia 74690-900, GO, Brazil
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Remote Sens. 2018, 10(11), 1761; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111761
Received: 4 September 2018
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Revised: 1 November 2018
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Accepted: 3 November 2018
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Published: 8 November 2018
(This article belongs to the Section Remote Sensing in Agriculture and Vegetation)
Around 55% of all Brazilian cattle production is located in the Cerrado biome, which also contains the largest pasture area in Brazil. Previous studies indicated that about 60% of these pastures were degraded by 2010. However, up-to-date and more precise estimates are necessary to access the extent and degree of degradation of the Cerrado pastures, since these areas constitute strategic land reserves for both livestock intensification and soybean expansion. Therefore, in this study, we estimated the area of degraded pastures in the Cerrado by analyzing the trends of cumulative NDVI anomalies over time used as a proxy for pasture degradation. The generated slope surface was segmented into two classes, comprising non-degraded and degraded pastures, which were correlated with socio-economic and biophysical variables. According to our study, around 39% of the Cerrado pastures are currently degraded, encompassing 18.2 million hectares, mostly in areas with a cattle carrying capacity below 1.0 AU ha−1. These areas, distributed in the northwest Cerrado, mostly within the Brazilian states of Maranhão, Piauí, and Bahia (i.e., Matopiba region), tend to be associated with decreasing rainfall patterns and low investments in soil conservation practices. The degraded areas also tend to be concentrated in municipalities with low human development indices (HDI).
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MDPI and ACS Style
Pereira, O.J.R.; Ferreira, L.G.; Pinto, F.; Baumgarten, L. Assessing Pasture Degradation in the Brazilian Cerrado Based on the Analysis of MODIS NDVI Time-Series. Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 1761. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111761
AMA Style
Pereira OJR, Ferreira LG, Pinto F, Baumgarten L. Assessing Pasture Degradation in the Brazilian Cerrado Based on the Analysis of MODIS NDVI Time-Series. Remote Sensing. 2018; 10(11):1761. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111761
Chicago/Turabian StylePereira, Osvaldo J.R., Laerte G. Ferreira, Flávia Pinto, and Leandro Baumgarten. 2018. "Assessing Pasture Degradation in the Brazilian Cerrado Based on the Analysis of MODIS NDVI Time-Series" Remote Sensing 10, no. 11: 1761. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10111761
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