Temporal variability of the cover of the dry forest (caatinga) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

The objective of this work was to understand the temporal dynamics of land use and occupation in the microregions of the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the period 1985 to 2018.  The methodology was based on the application of the homogeneity test, to verify the tendency of grouping the microregions as to homogeneous patterns of gain or loss of forest cover. The annual data on land cover and land use were obtained from the Project for Annual Mapping of Land Cover and Land Use in Brazil (MapBiomas), for the analyses the type of cover associated with the Savanna Formation (Caatinga) was chosen and of the 167 municipalities 19 microregions were selected, annual time series of the forest cover were used, so that the temporal variability of the cover and the tendency of loss of the Caatinga type forest cover could be verified. The results showed that the Caatinga biome over the years, suffered changes during the period studied, evidencing a variability in forest cover with a significant reduction in forest cover and a high degree of change in its landscape. The decrease in the original forest cover is remarkable. Thus, we can infer that this decrease is associated with the advances of anthropic actions, such as agriculture and cattle-raising. However, some microregions stood out in relation to the variability of forest cover, with significant losses of cover if compared to others. These were: Mossoró, Midwest, Borborema Potiguar and Pau dos Ferros.