O efeito do luxo sobre a diversidade arbórea das praças na cidade de Boa Vista - RR

Abstract

Urbanization often causes conflicts between socioeconomic organization and biodiversity conservation in cities. Tree diversity within cities is important not only for its direct effects on the population, such as thermal comfort, but also for its indirect effects, for example through animals that use trees as habitats and carry out plant dispersal and/or pollination. A curious pattern was observed in some cities around the world and called the luxury effect, in which a greater diversity of plants was directly associated with richer neighborhoods. The luxury effect reflects environmental injustice, as the benefits associated with biodiversity are not shared equitably by society. However, most studies related to the luxury effect were developed in countries considered rich and in regions with temperate and/or arid climates. Therefore, it is still little known how the luxury effect works in countries with a tropical climate and great native biodiversity, such as Brazil. This is especially important in the case of public squares, which are under the direct control of the Executive Branch and, thus, can serve as an instrument to balance the population's access to biodiversity within the city. The effect of luxury can be modified when the relationship between socioeconomics and biodiversity is influenced by land use legacies, which modulate the species influenced by wealth as neighborhoods age. The history of land use is also especially important in urban landscapes because it can reflect the amplification of the luxury effect, when in fact, it reflects the distribution and composition of species introduced into the ecosystem over the years, transforming the luxury effect into the luxury effect. legacy. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to analyze the luxury effect to determine which factors affect tree-shrub diversity in public squares in Boa Vista, RR. Therefore, we evaluated how much the number of squares and the number of tree species per square in the neighborhoods of Boa Vista reflect the sales value (R$) of the square meter (m2) of the property area, including the possible effect of other factors: linear distance from the center (ground zero) of the city (km), area of the neighborhood (m2), size of the human population. The results showed positive relationships between the dependent variables “Number of public squares per neighborhood” and “Number of tree species per public square” and the predictor variables neighborhood area” and “linear distance from center.” The predictor variables “Human population” and “Value of m2 ” showed negative relationships for the dependent variables. Given the results, we refute the luxury effect and validate the legacy effect in the public squares of Boa Vista. However, the predominance of some tree/shrub species, cultivated (native to Brazil, but cultivated in Boa Vista) in public squares, particularly Moquilea tomentosa Benth., Handroanthus impetiginosus (Mart. ex DC.) Mattos and Cenostigma tocantinum Ducke., cause ecological changes in urban environments, distorting the landscape of a city in the extreme north of the Amazon.