The life zones based on bioclimatic conditions in Ceará state, Brazil

Abstract

The Holdridge life zone approach is a useful tool for planning the territorial management of natural resources as well as for supporting the development of strategies and public policies that result in the definition of priority areas for conservation and sustainable use of forests. Thus, in the present study, we aimed to identify and describe the life zones that occur in the state of Ceará based on the Holdridge model. For this purpose, we used data on annual precipitation, biotemperature and potential evapotranspiration ratio. The results indicated that, although the state of Ceará is mostly under the influence of a semi-arid macroclimate, it presents a heterogeneous geographic space, in which different life zones associated with bioclimatic diversity occur. The most important bioclimatic variable for the classification of life zones was the potential evapotranspiration ratio, which represents the amount of water that is transferred to the atmosphere in relation to the amount of water that is precipitated in a given location. The Holdridge climatic classification identified eight life zones, all located in the tropical latitudinal zone and basal (90.04% of the Ceará territory) and premontane (9.96%) altitudinal zones, which vary, in terms of humidity, from very dry forests to humid forests. The most extensive life zone comprises the transition areas between very dry forest and basal tropical dry forest, occupying 64,825.69 km², which covers 43.54% of the Ceará territory.