Deforestation and climate change: The multiple pressures over Amazonian forests
Abstract
Amazonia is under significant stress from both deforestation and climate change. Multiple pieces of evidence show that the links between the hydrological and carbon cycles are changing. Deforestation is increasing in Amazonia, and in 2020, about 11,088 km² of forests were converted, with a projection of about 25% increase in 2021. On the deforestation side, public policies in Brazil favor illegal occupation of public lands and invasion of indigenous territories protected by the Brazilian constitution. Deforestation is bringing forest degradation to the edges of deforested areas. The impact of climate change is less clear, with changes in the hydrological cycle and increased temperature, promoting forest degradation that is making parts of the Amazon Forest starting to be a carbon source. It is hard to know where a possible environment tipping point could be and which variables or values could be the indicators for this possible tipping point. The role of intensified climate extremes is another critical variable, with Amazonia under increased droughts/inundation cycles. Remote sensing measurements show that vapor pressure deficit is increasing for both perturbed Eastern and pristine Northern Amazonia. In situ aircraft high precision CO2 measurements show that for parts of Amazonia, the carbon uptake by undisturbed forests is not equilibrating the carbon emissions by deforestation. MapBiomas system provides detailed land-use change maps linked to meteorological information to apportion carbon emissions to forest degradation or deforestation. We plan to develop a basin-wide system using big data strategies with machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other techniques to address drivers for land-use changes in Amazonia, as well as carbon emissions. First results will be presented, with CO2 and CH4 remote sensing measurements in Amazonia coupled with MapBiomas land-use change maps.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFM.B41C..04A