Duration: 2015 - 2017
Funded by: FUNCAP/CNPq
Coordination:
Francisca Soares de Araújo
Since the Portuguese colonization, natural northeastern semiarid vegetation has been influenced by human actions. Knowing that Caatinga is formed by a large diversity of plant species adapted to the present climate, climate change can affect its biodiversity. In the cearence? semiarid manmade fires are relatively frequent for agropastoral ends. However, the effects of fire use in this environment since the last centuries or millennia remains unknown, as well as whether previous fires could be of natural origin or not. Consequently, the Brazilian semiarid region is quite degraded and the prognosis for a drier climate in the near future supposedly accelerate the desertification process in the region. The main objective of this project is to reconstruct the vegetation dynamics in both regions susceptible to desertification processes for the last millennia in order to detect the impacts of future climate change and human activities on the ecosystems of the Caatinga and its possible influence on the process of desertification in the state of Ceará.
Team:
Vivian Luciana Jeske-Pieruschka
Marie-Pierre Ledru
Mayrluce Rodrigues Coutinho
Institutions:
Universidade Federal do Ceará
Université Montpellier II
Institute of Evolutionary Sciences, France