Formation of new biomes in technogenic ground: case study of an urban expansion area in Guarulhos (SP)

Abstract

This study examines the post-technogenic development of the landscape (geomorphological processes and formation of anthropogenic biomes) in an area of ​​urban expansion of the municipality of Guarulhos (SP), which is named Parque Continental II. The formation of the anthropogenic ground in this area, which occurred in the 1990s and was previously studied by other researchers (as well as its vegetation cover), is part of a technogenic system of peripheral urbanization that involved degradation processes (excavation) and aggradation (landfilling and increased erosion-induced sedimentation. The peculiarity of this case study is that the process of urbanization (land division) was not implemented, and the ground developed without significant intervention after the initial disturbances. The mapping and classification of this artificial ground were reviewed and updated, the geomorphological evolution processes were described, and the peculiarities of the ecological succession phenomena were examined, in order to characterize a technogenic succession system, that is, a set of ecological communities developed in a landscape highly impacted by human geological agency. Based on the relationship between these communities (or subsystems of technogenic succession) and the characteristics of the technogenic substrate, areas of technobiomes (ecosystems formed by the association of species and new substrates derived from the transformation of the landscape) were classified and mapped. It is considered that, due to its technogenic and ecological diversity, this area should be preserved.