Effects of Deforestation on the Onset of the Rainy Season and the Duration of Dry Spells in Southern Amazonia

Leite-Filho, Argemiro Teixeira; Pontes, Verônica Yameê de Sousa; Costa, Marcos Heil

doi:10.1029/2018jd029537

Cited by 83 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(96 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The rainy season begins in the first half-month of September for the north-western regions, and as late as November in the southeastern part (Figure 2a). This northwest-to-southeast gradients of the onset of the rainy season in southern Amazon give support the Leite-Filho et al (2019) results. September 7th is the average B at 7 S and September 21st is the average at 14 S, a difference of 14 days, with small east-west changes.…”

Section: Spatial Variability Of Onset Demise and Length Of The Raisupporting

confidence: 86%

“…This higher delay on the rainy season onset in areas with greater deforestation give support to Leite‐Filho et al . () conclusions for the same region.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This northwest‐to‐southeast gradients of the onset of the rainy season in southern Amazon give support the Leite‐Filho et al . () results. September 7th is the average B at 7°S and September 21st is the average at 14°S, a difference of 14 days, with small east–west changes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The southern Amazon is one of the most rapidly developing agricultural frontiers in the world, having experienced high rates of conversion of forest to croplands and pasturelands (Salazar et al, 2007;Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, 2014). Previous studies have demonstrated that these intense land use and land cover changes affect the regional precipitation (Lean et al, 1996;Costa and Foley, 2000;Davidson et al, 2012;Debortoli et al, 2015;Boers et al, 2017;Agudelo et al, 2019;Leite-Filho et al, 2019;Molina et al, 2019). These impacts are potentially important for the region, as some of its main economic activities, including agriculture, are highly dependent on climate (Sumila et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, Leite-Filho et al (2019) demonstrated a delayed rainy season onset in 65% of the 38 rain-gauges with more than 25 years of data analysed in southern Amazon. They indicated a delay on the onset of the rainy season of 0.12-0.17 days per percent increase in deforestation in the southern Amazon, emphasizing that the likelihood of rainy season onset occurring earlier than normal decreases as the local deforestation fraction increases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The southern Amazon rainy season: The role of deforestation and its interactions with large‐scale mechanisms

Leite-Filho

Costa

2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Past studies presented evidence that deforestation may affect the precipitation seasonality in southern Amazon. This study uses daily rainfall data from Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission 3B42 product and a recent yearly 1‐km land use dataset to evaluate the quantitative effects of deforestation on the onset, demise and length of the rainy season in southern Amazon for a period of 15 years (1998–2012). Additionally, we use the Niño4 index, zonal wind data and deforestation data to explain and predict the interannual variability of the onset of the rainy season. During this period, onset has delayed ~0.38 ± 0.05 days per year (5.7 ± 0.75 days in 15 years), demise has advanced 1.34 ± 0.76 days per year (20 ± 11.4 days in 15 years) and the rainy season has shortened by 1.81 ± 0.97 days per year (27 ± 14.5 days in 15 years). Onset, demise and length also present meridional and zonal gradients linked to large‐scale climate mechanisms. After removing the effects related to geographical position and year, we verified a relationship between onset, demise and length and deforestation: Onset delays ~0.4 ± 0.12 day, demise advances ~1.0 ± 0.22 day and length decreases ~0.9 ± 0.34 day per each 10% deforestation increase relative to existing forested area. We also present empirical evidence of the interaction between large‐scale and local‐scale processes, with interannual variation of the onset in the region explained by Niño4 sea surface temperature anomalies, Southern Hemisphere subtropical jet position, deforestation and their interactions (r2 = 69%, p < .001, mean absolute error = 2.7 days).

show abstract

Section: Spatial Variability Of Onset Demise and Length Of The Raisupporting

confidence: 86%

“…This higher delay on the rainy season onset in areas with greater deforestation give support to Leite‐Filho et al . () conclusions for the same region.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The southern Amazon rainy season: The role of deforestation and its interactions with large‐scale mechanisms

Leite-Filho

Costa

2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Land use change: the barrier for sugarcane sustainability

Picoli

Machado

2021

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bioethanol production in Brazil gained momentum in the 1970s and 1980s as an energy security and energy sufficiency measure due to the well‐known world oil crisis. However, the increase in bioethanol production and consumption in the past couple of decades has been backed by the country's efforts and measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector. Brazil is the second largest producer of biofuels, and its production continues to increase because of the commitments made in the Paris Agreement in 2015. This study reviews several key policies designed to develop Brazilian bioethanol production and to protect the environment. It is argued that many of these policies do not consider land use change or encourage land protection to achieve sustainable land use and agricultural production. Thus, this work aims to understand the importance and impacts of public policies in expanding sugarcane in Brazil in the past 34 years, with regard to land use and native vegetation. The discussion in this paper addresses the inadequacy of current policies to avoid direct and indirect land use change caused by sugarcane expansion, despite incentives such as 17 Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations and certification schemes. The data presented indicate an indirect effect caused by the expansion of sugarcane over pasture areas, which leads to further clearing of natural vegetation to establish new pasture areas. Ultimately, this study addresses the importance of zero deforestation in Brazil, regardless of the crop that causes the conversion. Without conjoint efforts by all sectors of the economy to curtail deforestation, the sustainability of producing biofuels is not guaranteed, as the emissions caused by deforestation will not be offset by the lower GHG emissions obtained by using ethanol as a transport fuel. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

show abstract

Amazon hydrology from space: scientific advances and future challenges

Fassoni‐Andrade

Fleischmann

Papa³

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As the largest river basin on Earth, the Amazon is of major importance to the world's climate and water resources. Over the past decades, advances in satellite-based remote sensing (RS) have brought our understanding of its terrestrial water cycle and the associated hydrological processes to a new era. Here, we review major studies and the various techniques using satellite RS in the Amazon. We show how RS played a major role in supporting new research and key findings regarding the Amazon water cycle, and how the region became a laboratory for groundbreaking investigations of new satellite retrievals and analyses. At the basin-scale, the understanding of several hydrological processes was only possible with the advent of RS observations, such as the characterization of "rainfall hotspots" in the Andes-Amazon transition, evapotranspiration rates, and variations of surface waters and groundwater storage. These results strongly contribute to the recent advances of hydrological models and to our new understanding of the Amazon water budget and aquatic environments. In the context of upcoming hydrology-oriented satellite missions, which will offer the opportunity for new synergies and new observations with finer space-time resolution, this review aims to guide future research agenda toward integrated monitoring and understanding of the Amazon water from space. Integrated multidisciplinary studies, fostered by international collaborations, set up future directions to tackle the great challenges the Amazon is currently facing, from climate change to increased anthropogenic pressure. Plain Language SummaryThe Amazon basin is the largest river basin in the world, characterized by complex hydrological processes that connect high rates of precipitation, extensive floodplains, dense tropical forests, complex topography, and large variations in freshwater storage and discharge. It plays a key role in the water, energy, and carbon cycles and interacts with the global climate system. Earth observations have played a major role in supporting research in Amazon hydrology, and the characterization of several hydrological processes was only possible with the help of remote sensing data. The basin is now facing great risk under current climate change and increased anthropogenic pressure and the resulting environmental alterations require a better understanding of the overall basin's water cycle across scales. We review the strengths and limitations of observations from satellites in the context of the current and upcoming hydrology-oriented satellite missions, and we make recommendations for improving satellite observations of the Amazon basin water cycle, along with an interdisciplinary and stepwise approach to guide research for the next decades.

show abstract

Effects of Deforestation on the Onset of the Rainy Season and the Duration of Dry Spells in Southern Amazonia

Cited by 83 publications

References 53 publications

The southern Amazon rainy season: The role of deforestation and its interactions with large‐scale mechanisms

The southern Amazon rainy season: The role of deforestation and its interactions with large‐scale mechanisms

Land use change: the barrier for sugarcane sustainability

Amazon hydrology from space: scientific advances and future challenges

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About