About
Beginning in the nineteenth century, southern Brazil experienced increasingly rapid transformation of its forest ecosystems, particularly in regions occupied by the settlement of Italian and German Immigrants. Over the intervening years, native forests were replaced by agriculture (mono and polyculture), livestock, urban centers, reforestation with exotic trees, and fruit cultivation. Specifically with respect to fruit cultivation, there was a preference for viticulture, which is the main subject of our research.
There are few studies about the patterns and processes of this transformation and their relation with socioeconomic and biophysical aspects. Traditionally, there is a lack of integration of multidisciplinary data that has holding back the possibility to understand such complex phenomena. Therefore, an integrated approach helps to bring into a relevant contextual analysis by combining data normally analyzed separately. This research is intended to understand the transformation of ecosystems by linking and spatially integrating data on ecosystem distribution and formation, with demographic, land use, and settlement history data on a regional scale.