Doctoral Dissertation Research: Agricultural Development, Environmental Destruction and Prospects for Conservation in the Savanna (Cerrado) of Eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil

关于全球变化的人的方面的最重要的调查线索之一是对地球仪不同地区土地使用和土地覆盖变化的模式和过程的研究。 这个博士论文研究项目探讨了加速土地转换的戏剧性过程中，巴西塞拉多亚马逊盆地，物种丰富的树栖稀树草原，经历了巨大的土地转换现代农业发展。 大豆、杂交玉米和棉花、高地以及大规模养牛消耗了塞拉多三分之一以上（约700万公顷）的土地。 对该地区农业和环境变化的调查将开始，重点是巴西中南部马托格罗索州东部的当地土地和资源使用者，特别注意与最近在多个地理和时间尺度上运作的土地转换有关的社会文化和经济进程。 实地研究将评估自1969年以来马托格罗索州东部不断变化的当地资源使用情况，探索土地使用决策结构、殖民化过程、当地农业和农艺技术历史、土地保有权以及获得自然和资本资源的机会。 将对遥感图像进行判读，并利用地理信息系统进行空间分析，以确定塞拉多植被的损失情况以及新农田、牧场和定居点的建立情况。 档案和政策研究将突出地方和国家层面的思想和政治经济力量，这些力量正在支持和竞争农业现代化。 该项目将进一步阐明地方规模进程在人与环境相互作用中的作用，特别关注国家在农业补贴和生产技术进步方面的作用。 它还将为实地人种学研究与遥感数据的结合提供新的见解。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

One of the most significant lines of inquiry with respect to the human dimensions of global change in research on the patterns and processes of land-use and land-cover change in different parts of the globe. This doctoral dissertation research project examines the dramatic process of accelerating land conversion in the Brazilian cerrado of the Amazon Basin, a species-rich arboreal savanna that has undergone tremendous land conversion by modern agricultural development. Soybeans, hybrid maize and cotton, upland rice, and large-scale cattle ranching consumed more than a third (or roughly 7 million hectares) of the cerrado. This investigation of agricultural and environmental changes in the region will begin by focusing on local land and resource users in eastern Mato Grosso state of south central Brazil, paying particular attention to the sociocultural and economic processes associated with recent land conversion that operate at multiple geographic and temporal scales. Field research will assess changing local resource use in eastern Mato Grosso since 1969 by exploring land-use decision-making structure, process of colonization, and local history of agricultural and agronomic technology, land tenure, and access to natural and capital resources. Remotely sensed images will be interpreted and a geographic information system (GIS) used for spatial analysis in order to determine the loss of cerrado vegetation and the establishment of new croplands, pastures, and settlements. Archival and policy research will highlight the ideological and political economic forces at the local and national scales that are supporting and also contesting agricultural modernization. This project will shed new light on the role of local-scale processes in human-environmental interactions, with special attention given to the state's role in agricultural subsidies and technological advances in production. It also will provide new insights into the integration of field-based ethnographic research with remotely sensed data. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.