Ecological Resilience of the largest savanna biome: Cerrado in Brazil

Resilience of an ecosystem is a factor that determines the efficacy and success of protection, restoration and improved management strategies against climate, land use and cover changes. Resilience is a popular term with varied definitions across sectors, stakeholders and ecosystems with limited understanding of it in tropical savannas. We are currently developing research in which we are estimating ecological resilience of the world’s largest tropical savanna biome- the Cerrado in Brazil, using remotely sensed information about vegetation through time. In my talk, I will provide a brief background of resilience theory and the complexity of tropical savannas followed by preliminary results of the ecological resilience of the Cerrado. I will end my talk with potential next steps in analysing the variation of resilience across the Cerrado.