Soil loss of Cerrado biome: comparative study between areas protected and not protected areas by Conservation Units

The Biome of Brazilian savannah, Cerrado, an important ecological-economic region with a large production of commodities, has in its northern portion the recent agricultural frontier outside the Amazon. Problems derived from environmental degradation, such as erosive processes and the loss of soil productivity have shown their relevance. In this context, this paper analyses the space-time variabilities in soil losses rates calculated for watersheds draining the Emas National Park (PNE), and National Park of Brasilia (PNB), and their surroundings by applying the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) for the years 1970, 1985 and 2018. Results indicate that the higher average rates were calculated for the surroundings of PNB, 10 ton.h-'.a-1, hanging from 3.8 to 20.8. Oppositely, for the PNE soil loss rates were 10 times lower from those of PNB, where no significant differences were observed, with average rate of 0.3 ton.h-'.a-1(hanging from 0.1 to 0.5). Oppositely, the controlling factors of soil loss differed among the two sites, as for the PNB land-use changes controlled the time-space variabilities, and for the PNE only the morphologic differences played this role. The rates calculated for the PNE and surroundings differ from the general trend observed for other Savannahs in the world.