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(Reference retrieved automatically from Google Scholar through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Differences in throughfall and net precipitation between soybean and transitional tropical forest in the southern Amazon, Brazil

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Author(s):
Baese, Frank [1] ; Elsenbeer, Helmut [1] ; Neill, Christopher [2] ; Krusche, Alex V. [3]
Total Authors: 4
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Potsdam, Inst Erd & Umweltwissensch, Potsdam - Germany
[2] Marine Biol Lab, Ctr Ecosyst, Woods Hole, MA 02543 - USA
[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Ctr Energia Agr, Lab Ecol Isotop, Piracicaba, SP - Brazil
Total Affiliations: 3
Document type: Journal article
Source: AGRICULTURE ECOSYSTEMS & ENVIRONMENT; v. 159, p. 19-28, 2012.
Web of Science Citations: 12
Abstract

The expansion of soybean cultivation into the Amazon in Brazil has potential hydrological effects at local to regional scales. To determine the impacts of soybean agriculture on hydrology, a comparison of net precipitation (throughfall, stemflow) in undisturbed tropical forest and soybean fields on the southern edge of the Amazon Basin in the state of Mato Grosso is needed. This study measured throughfall with troughs and stemflow with collar collectors during two rainy seasons. The results showed that in forest 91.6% of rainfall was collected as throughfall and 0.3% as stemflow, while in soybean fields with two-month old plants, 46.2% of rainfall was collected as throughfall and 9.0% as stemflow. Hence, interception of precipitation in soybean fields was far greater than in intact forests. Differences in throughfall, stemflow and net precipitation were found to be mainly associated with differences in plant structure and stem density in transitional forest and soybean cropland. Because rainfall interception in soybean fields is higher than previously believed and because both the area of cropland and the frequency of crop cycles (double cropping) are increasing rapidly, interception needs to be reconsidered in regional water balance models when consequences of land cover changes are analyzed in the Amazon soybean frontier region. Based on the continued expansion of soybean fields across the landscape and the finding that net precipitation is lower in soy agriculture, a reduction in water availability in the long term can be assumed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 08/58089-9 - The role of rivers on the regional carbon cycle
Grantee:Maria Victoria Ramos Ballester
Support Opportunities: Research Program on Global Climate Change - Thematic Grants