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Coupling remote sensing and eDNA to monitor environmental impact: A pilot to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon

Dyson, Karen; Nicolau, Andréa P.; Tenneson, Karis; Francesconi, Wendy; Daniels, Amy; Andrich, Giulia; Caldas, Bernardo; Castaño, Silvia; de Campos, Nathanael; Dilger, John; Guidotti, Vinicius; Jaques, Iara; McCullough, Ian M.; McDevitt, Allan D.; Molina, Luis; Nekorchuk, Dawn M.; Newberry, Tom; Pereira, Cristiano Lima; Perez, Jorge; Richards-Dimitrie, Teal; Rivera, Ovidio; Rodriguez, Beatriz; Sales, Naiara; Tello, Jhon; Wespestad, Crystal; Zutta, Brian; Saah, David

Coupling remote sensing and eDNA to monitor environmental impact: A pilot to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon Thumbnail


Authors

Karen Dyson

Andréa P. Nicolau

Karis Tenneson

Wendy Francesconi

Amy Daniels

Giulia Andrich

Bernardo Caldas

Silvia Castaño

Nathanael de Campos

John Dilger

Vinicius Guidotti

Iara Jaques

Ian M. McCullough

Allan D. McDevitt

Luis Molina

Dawn M. Nekorchuk

Tom Newberry

Cristiano Lima Pereira

Jorge Perez

Teal Richards-Dimitrie

Ovidio Rivera

Beatriz Rodriguez

Jhon Tello

Crystal Wespestad

Brian Zutta

David Saah



Contributors

Petr Heneberg
Editor

Abstract

Monitoring is essential to ensure that environmental goals are being achieved, including those of sustainable agriculture. Growing interest in environmental monitoring provides an opportunity to improve monitoring practices. Approaches that directly monitor land cover change and biodiversity annually by coupling the wall-to-wall coverage from remote sensing and the site-specific community composition from environmental DNA (eDNA) can provide timely, relevant results for parties interested in the success of sustainable agricultural practices. To ensure that the measured impacts are due to the environmental projects and not exogenous factors, sites where projects have been implemented should be benchmarked against counterfactuals (no project) and control (natural habitat) sites. Results can then be used to calculate diverse sets of indicators customized to monitor different projects. Here, we report on our experience developing and applying one such approach to assess the impact of shaded cocoa projects implemented by the Instituto de Manejo e Certificação Florestal e Agrícola (IMAFLORA) near São Félix do Xingu, in Pará, Brazil. We used the Continuous Degradation Detection (CODED) and LandTrendr algorithms to create a remote sensing-based assessment of forest disturbance and regeneration, estimate carbon sequestration, and changes in essential habitats. We coupled these remote sensing methods with eDNA analyses using arthropod-targeted primers by collecting soil samples from intervention and counterfactual pasture field sites and a control secondary forest. We used a custom set of indicators from the pilot application of a coupled monitoring framework called TerraBio. Our results suggest that, due to IMAFLORA’s shaded cocoa projects, over 400 acres were restored in the intervention area and the community composition of arthropods in shaded cocoa is closer to second-growth forests than that of pastures. In reviewing the coupled approach, we found multiple aspects worked well, and we conclude by presenting multiple lessons learned.

Citation

Dyson, K., Nicolau, A. P., Tenneson, K., Francesconi, W., Daniels, A., Andrich, G., …Saah, D. (in press). Coupling remote sensing and eDNA to monitor environmental impact: A pilot to quantify the environmental benefits of sustainable agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon. PloS one, 19(2), e0289437. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289437

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 1, 2023
Online Publication Date Feb 14, 2024
Deposit Date Feb 21, 2024
Publicly Available Date Feb 21, 2024
Journal PLOS ONE
Print ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher Public Library of Science
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 19
Issue 2
Pages e0289437
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289437

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