Near doubling of Brazil’s intensive row crop area since 2000

作者：Viviana Zalles, Matthew C. Hansen, Peter Potapov, Stephen V. Stehman, Alexandra Tyukavina, Amy Pickens, Xiao‐Peng Song, Bernard Adusei, Chima Okpa, Ricardo Aguilar, Nicholas John, Selena Chavez · 发表于：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 年份：2018 · DOI：10.1073/pnas.1810301115 · 被引用次数：222 · 研究领域：Rural Development and Agriculture、Agricultural and Food Sciences、Soil Management and Crop Yield

Brazil has become a global leader in the production of commodity row crops such as soybean, sugarcane, cotton, and corn. Here, we report an increase in Brazilian cropland extent from 26.0 Mha in 2000 to 46.1 Mha in 2014. The states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, Bahia (collectively MATOPIBA), Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Pará all more than doubled in cropland extent. The states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo each experienced >50% increases. The vast majority of expansion, 79%, occurred on repurposed pasture lands, and 20% was from the conversion of natural vegetation. Area of converted Cerrado savannas was nearly 2.5 times that of Amazon forests, and accounted for more than half of new cropland in MATOPIBA. Spatiotemporal dynamics of cropland expansion reflect market conditions, land use policies, and other factors. Continued extensification of cropland across Brazil is possible and may be likely under current conditions, with attendant benefits for and challenges to development.