Search results for "Rainforest"

Sentinel 2 and 3 for Temperature Monitoring Over the Amazon

2018

In this work we present results of an early assessment of the performance of the Land Surface Temperature (LST) product retrieved from the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on board the Sentinel-3 satellite (S3/SLSTR) over the Amazon basin. Results are validated from comparison of S3/SLSTR retrievals against in situ measurements of surface temperature collected over one instrumented site in the Peruvian Amazon. The validation exercise was performed on the standard S3/SLSTR Level-2 LST product as well as on a dedicated LST split-window algorithm with an explicit dependence on surface emissivity. Surface emissivity maps obtained from the high spatial resolution of S2/MSI are…

2010

Abstract. As a major source region of the hydroxyl radical OH, the Tropics largely control the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere on a global scale. However, emissions of hydrocarbons from the tropical rainforest that react rapidly with OH can potentially deplete the amount of OH and thereby reduce the oxidation capacity. The airborne GABRIEL field campaign in equatorial South America (Suriname) in October 2005 investigated the influence of the tropical rainforest on the HOx budget (HOx = OH + HO2). The first observations of OH and HO2 over a tropical rainforest are compared to steady state concentrations calculated with the atmospheric chemistry box model MECCA. The important precursors …

Seasonal and Inter-annual Variation of Evapotranspiration in Amazonia Based on Precipitation, River Discharge and Gravity Anomaly Data

2019

We analyzed seasonal and spatial variations of evapotranspiration (ET) for five Amazon sub-basins and their response to the 2015/16 El Nino episode using a recently developed water-budget approach. ET varied typically between similar to 7 and 10 cm/month with exception of the Xingu basin for which it varied between 10 and 15 cm/month. Outstanding features of ET seasonality are (i) generally weak seasonality, (ii) two ET peaks for the two very wet catchments Solimoes and Negro, with one occurring during the wet season and one during the drier season, and (iii) a steady increase of ET during the second half of the dry season for the three drier catchments (Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu). Peak ET oc…

Fire Responses to the 2010 and 2015/2016 Amazonian Droughts

2019

Extreme droughts in Amazonia cause anomalous increase in fire occurrence, disrupting the stability of environmental, social and economic systems. Thus, understanding how droughts affect fire patterns in this region is essential for anticipating and planning actions for remediation of possible impacts. Focused on the Brazilian Amazon biome, we investigated fire responses to the 2010 and 2015/2016 Amazonian droughts using a remote sensing data. Our results revealed that the 2015/2016 drought surpassed the 2010 drought in intensity and extent. During the 2010 drought, we found a maximum area of 846,800 km2 (24% of the Brazilian Amazon biome) with significant (p<0.05) rainfall decrease in the f…

Droughts Over Amazonia in 2005, 2010, and 2015: A Cloud Cover Perspective

2018

Amazon forests experienced recent severe droughts in an anomalous short period induced by different mechanisms and had different length periods and spatial patterns. Droughts of 2005 and 2010 were attributed to anomalous Sea Surface Temperature (SST) over the Tropical North Atlantic (TNA) during the dry season, but the 2010 drought was more severe and remained for a longer period because it was also induced in late 2009 by a moderate to strong El Niño (EN). Drought in 2015 led to unprecedented warming and extreme soil moisture deficits over some regions, and it was attributed to a very strong EN. Several studies analyzed these drought events regarding different climatic factors such as anom…

Neolithic Human Societies and Woodlands in the North-Western Mediterranean Region: Wood and Charcoal Analysis

2017

An overview of woodland history in the north-western Mediterranean region, based on charcoal analysis (Anthracology) from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, is proposed for the Mediterranean areas of France, Spain and Portugal. The taxonomic identification of charcoal fragments and the diachronic variations of taxa frequencies provide, for each settlement, an accurate image of the local vegetal cover. During the end of the last glaciation, beginning of the Holocene, vegetation dynamics reflects the evolution of climatic and geographic conditions. Any potential ecological impact by hunter-fisher-gatherer communities (Mesolithic) remains invisible; the same comment applies to the farming-herding…

Rainfall variability in subequatorial America and Africa and relationships with the main sea-surface temperature modes (1951–1990)

1995

The rainfall variability of subequatorial South America and Africa is poorly documented owing to the scarcity of data. We present a new land-only data set of monthly precipitation from 1951 to 1990, focusing on subequatorial South America and Africa, which improves the knowledge of rainfall variability and allows comparisons with GCM outputs. The results of multivariate analyses are compared with those performed on the best actual global rainfall data set developed by Mike Hulme. The main modes of bimonthly rainfall variability are not located in the major rain-forest basins of Za'ke and Amazonia, but rather on the tropical margins, such as Venezuela or Sudan, and near-coastal equatorial ar…

Factors influencing carbon decomposition of topsoils from the Brazilian Amazon Basin

1999

The influence of texture and local climate, especially precipitation, on C decomposition was evaluated in topsoils under forest and pastures at different sites located in the western, central, and eastern Brazilian Amazon Basin. Independent of the geographical location and vegetation cover, C decomposition was lower in topsoils of fine texture with a sand/clay ratio of less than 1, compared to topsoils of coarse a texture with a sand/clay ratio ranging from 2 to 8. In the former, the low sand/clay ratio appears to reduce C decomposition. In the latter, besides the effect of the high sand/clay ratio, the local climate, especially the annual precipitation, seems to play an important role in c…

Changes in Climate and Land Use Over the Amazon Region: Current and Future Variability and Trends

2018

This paper shows recent progress in our understanding of climate variability and trends in the Amazon region, and how these interact with land use change. The review includes an overview of up-to-date information on climate and hydrological variability, and on warming trends in Amazonia, which reached 0.6-0.7 °C over the last 40 years, with 2016 as the warmest year since at least 1950 (0.9 °C +0.3°C). We focus on local and remote drivers of climate variability and change. We review the impacts of these drivers on the length of dry season, the role of the forest in climate and carbon cycles, the resilience of the forest, the risk of fires and biomass burning, and the potential “die back” of …

El futuro del derecho como lucha contra la idolatría tecnológica

2019

The main challenge that Law will have to face in the near future is the defense of human being against the uncontrolled power of technology in different spheres: ecology versus the becoming of a new geological age: the Anthropocene; the finances, versus speculation and taxes fraud; biolaw, versus the transhumanist challenge; the rights to privacy and no manipulation versus GAF( Google, Amazon, Facebook). El reto principal al que debera hacer frente el derecho en el futuro es la defensa del ser humano frente al poder incontrolado de la tecnologia en diferentes campos: la ecologia, frente a la aparicion de una nueva era geologica: el Antropoceno; las finanzas, frente a la especulacion y el fr…