ABSTRACT
The intensity, magnitude and extent of human alteration of the landscape is unprecedented (Lambin et al., 2001). Such changes in land use and land cover are so important that they even affect fundamental aspects of planetary dynamics (Silva et al., 2011), such as biodiversity (Sala et al., 2000), infl uencing regional microclimate (Chase et al., 2000) resulting in draught or soil salinization or contributing to the generation of large-scale effects (Houghton, 1999).
