Vulnerabilidade climática da Araucaria angustifolia na Mata Atlântica

Abstract

The Forest with Araucaria, Mixed Ombrophilous Forest or Araucaria Rainforest is among the most critical forest formations of neotropics. Besides the large habitat loss, the climate changes represent an additional challenge to the survival of remaining populations that are highly fragmented and dispersed. This study used a predictive modeling of species distribution to estimate the climatic vulnerability of Araucaria angustifólia in the Atlantic Forest domain, searching for understanding the main environmental factors to occurrence of the specie and mapping the effect of climate changes about the potential distribution of Forest with Araucaria and their representation in protect areas. It was used the principle of maximum entropy (Maxent, 3.3.3k.) to the modeling, with a data of 200 points of natural occurrence of the specie and twelve bioclimatic layers. Three modeling were calculated, one to current climate (1950 to 2000) and two climate projections (2061 to 2080) to future scenarios of emission of CO2 RCP 4.5 e RCP 8.5. All modeling showed good AUC and low errors of omission. The predicted suitable area by current climate modeling agree with the real specie distribution, and it was determined by climate factors, mainly the average temperature of the coldest quarter, isothermality and precipitation of the driest quarter. The tendency for future scenarios showed restriction of A. angustifólia in the high regions of Brazilian southern plateau, Serra do Mar e Serra da Mantiqueira. The role of these areas as interglacial climate refuge is discussed. The protected areas should prioritize the highlands to prevent higher losses of habitat, attempting to in situ conservation of the specie.