Collapse Risk Assessment of the Cloud Forests of the Aparados da Serra Geral
The Red List of Ecosystems of The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a global structure to monitor the state of ecosystems. It assesses the risk for biodiversity and aims at supporting conservation, through the use of resources and management decision, identifying the ecosystems with greater risk of biodiversity loss.
In southern Brazil, the cloud forests of the Aparadas da Serra are scattered along the highlands, in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. The Aparados da Serra Geral are home to a rich biodiversity and a significant amount of endemic species. Besides being naturally fragmented, the quality of this ecosystem appears to be compromised, due to threatening factors such as the presence of invasive species, fire, deforestation and climate change.
Understanding the degree of anthropization and the current conservation status, where the more threatened forest fragments are, and which components of the ecosystem are more vulnerable are emerging questions for sustainable management strategies for the cloud forests. The objective of this project is to assess the collapse risk of the Cloud Forests of the Aparados da Serra Geral, establishing the spatial and temporal variation of the geographical distribution, measuring the degradation of abiotic resources and identifying changes in land-use and growth of threats in the ecosystem.
