ABSTRACT
This study aimed at mapping and analyzing the use of the land and the forest landscape structure in Ubá river basin - RJ state, through landscape metrics. The mapping of the land use and of the forest fragments were performed through a CBERS 2B/HRC image. To calculate the ecology indexes, the program FRAGSTATS 4.2® was used. The mapped fragments were divided by size classes: 1- very small, smaller than 5ha, 2- small fragment, between 5 and 10ha, 3- medium fragment, between 10 and 100 ha, and 4- big fragment, bigger than 100ha.The quantitative analysis through the landscape metrics were performed with the class metrics: area, shape, central area, aggregation, and diversity, obtaining the central area in different simulations of edge effects (20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 140 m). 47 forest fragments were mapped through all Uba river basin, representing 23.65% of forest cover. The medium fragments presented the greatest number (25), followed by the small ones (9), very small ones (7), and only two big ones. Ubá river basin has a predominance of an anthropogenic matrix represented by grasslands, a small percentage of forest cover with medium fragments between 10 and 100 ha, with a high degree of forest landscape fragmentation. The medium fragments are the most numerous class with a wider total area accounting for the only size class that maintains a distance shorter than 100 m between themselves. Even though the very small fragments and the small ones presented more regular shapes, they had a greater edge density. In relation to the central area metrics, the very small and small fragments totally lost their central area, being completely under the edge effect considering an edge distance of 140 m. An alternative in the context of Ubá river basin is the use of very small and small fragments as ecological corridors for the link with the medium fragments.
Keywords:
forest fragments; Atlantic forest; indexes of landscape ecology
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