Identificação e análise de tipologias morfo-fitogeográficas na Reserva Biológica do Mato Grande, Arroio Grande/RS

Abstract

The National System of Conservation Units (SNUC) was an important tool designed for naturally fragile areas of protection against the advance of anthropogenic practices. These activities are driven by the development of modern techniques for the exploitation of natural resources, especially focused on food production and have led to significant changes in very complex environments as the geodiversity and biodiversity features and the interactions between these elements: the lagoon environments. In this sense, the present study aimed to identify and analyze the morpho-phytogeographic typologies present in the Biological Reserve of Mato Grande - RS, in order to contribute for the understanding of the relationship between biodiversity and geodiversity of the area and support the management plan Biological Reserve (REBIO) in question. This analysis sought to emphasize the geomorphological changes that occurred between the years of 1947 and 2010 within REBIO and dynamic cover and land use between the years of 1947 and 2014 in both the damping zone as well as inside the REBIO, based on bibliographical consultations and preparation of geomorphological maps and cover and land use maps. These spatial information were related in order to understand the relationships between landforms and vegetation, resulting in the definition of morpho-phytogeographic typologies and analysis of pressure on these from the farming practices that are intensely established in the buffer zone due to the absence of a Management Plan for the Conservation Unit, as well as possible strategies that support the conservation of these typologies and consequently the REBIO. The analysis of the results found geomorphological changes resulting from the establishment of irrigated rice fields and construction of a network of artificial channels for water abstraction.Dynamic cover and land use highlighted the expansion of irrigated rice areas on natural hedges of clean field and dirty field in the REBIO buffer zone that act as pressure vectors for this conservation unit, which, in the area covered by their limits, presented the spatiotemporal evolution of natural hedges after its creation. The crossing of geomorphological data and cover and land use as well as the implementation of a Geoecological profile in the area of REBIO, highlighted the complex interrelationship between the landforms and vegetation in the evolutionary process of Gaúcha Lagoon Plain as well as the identification of pressures on the morpho-phytogeographic typologies that act as a basis for establishing and sustaining the biodiversity of flora and fauna present in the Biological Reserve of Mato Grande and that need to be understood and protected based on the development and implementation of the management plan.