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M.L.Leite & J.S.V. Filho 2010. Identification of climatic trends for some localities in the Southern Region of Campos Gerais
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variables, temperature and precipitation and check for possible changes and climate trends
observed in the cities of Fernandes Pinheiro, Lapa and Ponta Grossa, Southern of the Campos
Gerais Region and surroundings, State of Parana, Brazil.
2. Methodology
The cities of Ponta Grossa and Lapa are located in the phytogeographical region known as
Campos Gerais of Paraná, while Fernandes Pinheiro is located in a surrounding area, Paraná
State, Southern Brazil. These cities are represented on the map in Figure 1.
Figure 1 – Location of the cities: Fernandes Pinheiro, Lapa and Ponta Grossa, State of Parana, Southern
Brazil.
The region of Campos Gerais holds unique landscapes such as escarpments, caves, canyons,
rivers with rocky beds, waterfalls, ruiniform reliefs, remarkable displays of rocks and fossils
and diverse floral species. The forest vegetation occupies about 22% of the area of Campos
Gerais, including different types and successional stages. Such forests have been naturally
fragmented, forming isolated copses of various sizes and extensions, located on the slopes,
small depressions or in bands accompanying rivers, creeks and springs. However, the
occupation of areas previously considered unproductive, the rise of mechanized agriculture and
the use areas for the production of wood, have become factors that could cause preoccupation,
and cause, over time, major changes in the regional ecosystem, requiring studies of diverse
natures. The data used in this study were provided by the Instituto Agronômico do Paraná
(IAPAR) and consisted of records of the climatological variables temperature (maximum,
minimum and average) (ºC) and precipitation (mm). Initially, the daily data were subjected to
screening and assessment of consistency of time series and then arranged in annual, quarterly
and monthly series. The nonparametric test of Mann-Kendall, initially proposed by Sneyers
(1975), was applied in a significance level of 0.05 and 0.01%, in order to identify possible
climate changes over time, which could be presented as positive or negative trends within the
period analyzed. The data series have different durations for each city and location details can
be found in Table 1.
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.