Sources of water vapor to economically relevant regions in Amazonia and the effect of deforestation

Abstract

he Amazon rainforest helps regulate the regional humid climate. Understanding the effects of the Amazon deforestation is important to preserve not only the climate, but also economic activities that depend on it, in particular agricultural productivity and hydropower generation. This study calculates the source of water vapor contributing to the precipitation on economically relevant regions in Amazonia according to different scenarios of deforestation. These regions include the state of Mato Grosso, which produces about 9% of the global soybean production, and the basins of the Xingu and Madeira, with infrastructure under construction that will be capable to generate 20% of the electrical energy produced in Brazil. The results show that changes in rainfall after deforestation are stronger in regions nearest to the ocean, and indicate the importance of the continental water vapor source to the precipitation over southern Amazonia. In the two more continental regions (Madeira and Mato Grosso), decreases in the source of water vapor in one region were offset by increases in contributions from other continental regions, whereas in the Xingu basin, that is closer to the ocean, this mechanism did not occur. As a conclusion, the geographic location of the region is an important determinant of the resiliency of the regional climate to deforestation induced regional climate change. The more continental the geographic location, the less climate changes after deforestation.