Spatial analysis of forest cover of Restinga in the hydrographic sub-basin of the Comboios River, Espírito Santo, Brazil

Abstract

This paper aimed to realize mapping and analyze the structure of the forest landscape of Restinga of sub-basin of the Comboios River, as integrant of the transition zone of biological reserve full protection. Mapping was performed through images of GeoEye satellite, obtained from the Google Maps Downloader 7.201 software, and using interpretation techniques at scale 1:5.000 through ArcGIS 10.2 software. The fragments were divided into four size classes: very small (< 5 ha), small (5-10 ha), medium (10-100 ha) and large (> 100 ha). 57 fragments were found, representing 24.97% of the total area of the study area. The forest cover of the basin was composed, mostly by smaller forest fragments than 5 ha (29), indicating a high degree of forest fragmentation. It was verified through the application of landscape metrics, short edge effect only for the class of large fragments, representing the largest remaining forest areas of Restinga forest in the basin, and being all other size classes, susceptible to greater influence this process. The larger fragments were located farther away from the biological reserve, a factor that can provide isolation between species, with consequent reduction of gene flow between them.