Classification of land use and vegetation in tree cover loss areas (2000-2016) in the Usumacinta river watershed

Abstract

Worldwide, most tree cover loss studies are focused on quantifying it by means of remote sensing techniques. These studies frequently omit land use and vegetation classes, thus, the information of loss occurring for each of the land use vegetation types that exists in a region is limited. In order to identify which plant communities have been most affected by the tree cover loss process in the period 2000 - 2016 within the Usumacinta basin, in this study, two sources of information were analyzed simultaneously, namely: The series II of land use and vegetation of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico (Inegi) and the results from the evaluation of change in tree cover at the global scale made by Hansen et al. (2013). The results indicate that of the 347 317.68 ha of tree cover lost between 2000 and 2016 in the basin, 62% corresponds to three categories: The tropical rain forest (26%), one of the most biodiverse vegetation types in the country, secondary vegetation derived from tropical rain forest (19.1%) and the cultivated grassland (17%), a class strongly affected by anthropogenic activities. Most of the rain forest loss was concentrated on the medium part of the basin, while most of the grassland loss was located in the lower region. Conversely, the vegetation classes with less tree cover loss were also the least represented on the surface in the basin. The results derived from this work will serve to identify the most threatened systems and guide conservation actions in the region.