Functional Diversity and provisioning Ecosystem Services: An analysis of the Amazon Forest in the face of climate changes

Abstract

According to the 6th report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it is unequivocal that climate change is already affecting all terrestrial ecosystems, especially tropical ones such as the Amazon. In the Amazon, climate change is already affecting the forest, its functional diversity (DF), and the provision of Ecosystem Services (ES) that are important for climate regulation and food security. In this sense, recent studies show that protected areas (PAs) with sustainable management practices and conservation management are effective for the conservation of biodiversity and as barriers to environmental degradation, however, the importance of these areas in the functional aspect within the scope of climate change is still little explored, mainly for the Amazon region. With this, the general objective of this proposal is to advance in the understanding of the impact of climate change in the DF and in the provision of SE of climate regulation, water, and food supply by the Amazon forest. Specifically, we intend to evaluate which functional composition of the Amazon forest can ensure the ecosystem processes that guarantee the supply of SEs in the face of ongoing climate changes, in addition to investigating the importance of sustainable management and conservation practices traditionally used in PAs to guarantee and maintain processes and SE, via analysis of the DF and, in view of these climate changes. For this, innovative and not yet explored methodologies will be developed within ecosystem modeling, such as reverse modeling and SE quantification, using a global vegetation dynamics model (DGVM) called CAETÊ (Carbon and Ecosystem functional Trait Evaluation model). This work is oriented towards bringing scientific advances based mainly on the mitigation of climate change and the importance of maintaining the conservation of functions, processes, and services of terrestrial ecosystems, especially in regions with high local and global importance, such as the Amazon.