A regional view of the linkages between hydro-climaticchanges and deforestation in the Southern Amazon

ABSTRACT: In the last four decades, theSouthern Amazon (south of 8 S) has shown changesin the spatial and temporal patterns of itshydro-climatic components, leading todrier conditions. Due to climate and land-use changes, this region is considered asa zone under biophysical transition processes. Previous studies have documenteda complex interaction between climate anddeforestation either on a large-scale orbased on limited in situ data, typicallycovering the Brazilian Amazon. In thisstudy, we analyse the relationships between hydro-climate, the surface water-energy partitioning and an index of regional forest cover change for the period1981–2018. Additionally, we discretized three regions covering the Bolivian Ama-zon and the southern portions of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon due to theirdifferences in the evolution of land use. In the Bolivian region, a high ratio of for-est cover change, exceeding 40–50%, is related to a significant tendency to becomewater-limited. This change is associated with decreased rainfall, increased poten-tial evapotranspiration and decreased actual evapotranspiration. Regardless of theregion analysed, those that are characterized by a high ratio of forest cover change(>40–50%) show growing imbalance between increasing potential and decreasingactual evapotranspiration. However, in the Peruvian and Brazilian regions, hydro-climatic conditions remain energy-limited due to minor rainfall changes. Theobserved differences in surface water-energy partitioning behaviour evidence acomplex dependence of both sub-regional (i.e., land cover changes) and large-scale(i.e., strengthening of the Walker and Hadley circulations) conditions. Ourfindings indicate a clear link between hydro-climatic changes and deforestation,providing a new perspective on their spatial variability on a sub-regional scale.

• Autores: Arias Gómez, Paola Andrea; Wongchuig, Sly; Espinoza, Jhan Carlo; Condom, Thomas; Segura, Hans; Ronchail, Josyane; Junquas, Clementine; Rabatel, Antoine; Lebel, Thierry
• Tipo de recurso: Article of investigation
• Fecha de publicación: 2022
• Institución: Universidad de Antioquia
• Repositorio: Repositorio UdeA
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/34474
• Acceso en línea: https://hdl.handle.net/10495/34474
• Palabra clave: Pérdida de hábitat; Habitat loss; Variabilidad del clima; Climate variability; http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_353cbc9f; http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_45796fbf
• Rights: openAccess
• License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/