Alterações antropogênicas crônicas na paisagem: abordagem bibliométrica e in situ

Abstract

This thesis has three chapters about chronic anthropogenic disturbances. In the first one, we have used the bibliometrics as a tool to understand the current status of the field of scientific knowledge about chronic anthropogenic disturbances. We have identified that most of the papers about chronic disturbances are about the effects of livestock rearing or the collection of forest products on plant communities. Also, we have found that publishing in high CiteScore journals is one of the main drivers of the papers rate citation, followed by writing reviews studies, and having high h-index author(s). The papers’ selfcitation rate was influenced by the presence of authors with the following characteristics: high h-index, publish many papers about chronic disturbance, and are from low human development index countries. In the second chapter, we have performed a field study to understand how the low scale wood collection (a kind of chronic disturbance) affect plant communities structure in a dry tropical seasonal forest. To do this, we estimated the wood use for fuelwood and for building fences in six rural communities, in the Catimbau National Park, Northeastern Brazil. Moreover, we estimated the ecological descriptors of the plant communities, such as diversity indexes, the total density, and density of the most frequent species. Our findings demonstrated that the low scale wood collection may decrease plant species richness, and the total density of the communities, but may increase community evenness. Nevertheless, we have not found evidence that the most frequent species are affected by the wood collection. In the third chapter, we used the same socioenvironmental setting of the second chapter to access how socioeconomic predictors (including income, number of residents in each household, sex, education level and age) may affect people dependence on forest resources in different use categories (medicinal, food, fuelwood and construction).Older people and the men are the one who have more knowledge about native medicinal plants. People from low income families are the one who have more knowledge about native food plants. Family income and number of residents did not affect the demand for wood products. In general, we have found that the studied are has a low socioeconomic dynamism. Accordingly, the local people have a high dependence on forest products. Through this thesis, we have demonstrated that chronic disturbances are not just an environmental, but also a social and political matter. Therefore, reconciling human activities and biodiversity conservation needs efforts to adopt strategies that ensure the sustainable use of natural resources.