Relationship between land surface temperature and fraction of anthropized area in the Atlantic forest region, Brazil

Autor(es)

Wanderley, Raianny L. N. ^{[1, 2]} ; Domingues, Leonardo M. ^[1] ; Joly, Carlos A. ^[3] ; Rocha, Humberto R. ^{[1, 2]}

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Astron Geofis & Ciencias Atmosfer, Dept Ciencias Atmosfer, Lab Clima & Biosfera, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Energia & Ambiente, Programa Posgrad Ciencia Ambiental, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[3] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Dept Biol Vegetal, Campinas, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: PLoS One; v. 14, n. 12 DEC 5 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

There is growing evidence that modification of tropical forests to pasture or other anthropic uses (anthropization) leads to land surface warming at local and regional scales; however, the degree of this effect is unknown given the dependence on physiographic and atmospheric conditions. We investigated the dependence of satellite land surface temperature (LST) on the fraction of anthropized area index, defined as the fraction of non-forested percentual area within 120m square boxes, sampled over a large tropical forest dominated ecosystem spatial domain in the Atlantic Forest biome, southeastern Brazil. The LST estimated at a 30 m resolution, showed a significant dependence on elevation and topographic aspect, which controlled the average thermal regime by 2 similar to 4 degrees C and 1 similar to 2 degrees C, respectively. The correction of LST by these topographic factors allowed to detect a dependence of LST on the fraction of non-forested area. Accordingly, the relationship between LST and the fraction of non-forested area showed a positive linear relationship (R-2 = 0.63), whereby each 25% increase of non-forest area resulted in increased 1 degrees C. As such, increase of the maximum temperature (similar to 4 degrees C) would occur in the case of 100% increase of non-forested area. We conclude that our study area, composed to Atlantic forest, appears to show regulatory characteristics of temperature attenuation as a local climatic ecosystem service, which may have mitigation effects on the accelerated global warming. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 15/50682-6 - Investimentos pró-climáticos inteligentes em bacias de montanhas tropicais da América do Sul (ClimateWise)
• Beneficiário: Humberto Ribeiro da Rocha
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa de Pesquisa sobre Mudanças Climáticas Globais - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 12/51872-5 - ECOFOR: Biodiversidade e funcionamento de ecossistemas em áreas alteradas pelo homem nas Florestas Amazônica e Atlântica
• Beneficiário: Carlos Alfredo Joly
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático