Zoneamento agroclimático no cultivo de quatro espécies de eucalipto para a Costa do Descobrimento e o Extremo Sul do Estado da Bahia, Brasil

Abstract

It is estimated that the total area of Brazil covered by agroforestry was 7.84 million hectares (ha) in 2016, of which the different species of eucalyptus represent 5.7 million (72.7%). Bahia occupies the fourth place in the planting of eucalyptus, which generates much discussion regarding its influence on the regional hydrological cycle, due to the demand for water required in the plantations. Thus, this work aimed at agroclimatological zoning according to the environmental requirements for the planting of four eucalyptus species in the identity territories of the “Costa do Descobrimento e Extremo Sul” of the state of Bahia, Brazil. Geographic information systems (GIS) were used to spatialize the climatic data of temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration, applying the ordinary Kriging interpolation technique for climatic data. The zoning was the result of crossing these climatic data with the data of soils, relief, altitude, conservation units and land use. The generated maps provide information on the characteristics of the study area and indicating the appropriate areas for the cultivation of each of the eucalyptus species. The management zones in the study area were determined by classifying them as high, medium, low and unsuitable. In most of the northeast and southeast regions of the study area, areas with high aptitude for the four studied eucalyptus species predominated, associated with greater rainfall in the year and higher temperatures and, consequently, with greater evapotranspiration. The results indicate that eucalyptus plantations may be a potential risk to adjacent water resources due to the high evapotranspiration rates estimated for each species