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Land cover and its transformation in the backward trajectory footprint region of the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory
The Amazon rain forest experiences the combined pressures from human-made deforestation and progressing climate change, causing severe and potentially disruptive perturbations of the ecosystem's integrity and stability. To intensify research on critical aspects of Amazonian biosphere–atmosphere...
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Published in: | Atmospheric chemistry and physics 2019-07, Vol.19 (13), p.8425-8470 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | The Amazon rain forest experiences the combined pressures from human-made
deforestation and progressing climate change, causing severe and potentially
disruptive perturbations of the ecosystem's integrity and stability. To
intensify research on critical aspects of Amazonian biosphere–atmosphere
exchange, the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) has been established in
the central Amazon Basin. Here we present a multi-year analysis of backward
trajectories to derive an effective footprint region of the observatory,
which spans large parts of the particularly vulnerable eastern basin.
Further, we characterize geospatial properties of the footprint regions,
such as climatic conditions, distribution of ecoregions, land cover
categories, deforestation dynamics, agricultural expansion, fire regimes,
infrastructural development, protected areas, and future
deforestation scenarios. This study is meant to be a resource and reference
work, helping to embed the ATTO observations into the larger context of
human-caused transformations of Amazonia. We conclude that the chances to
observe an unperturbed rain forest–atmosphere exchange at the ATTO site will likely decrease
in the future, whereas the atmospheric signals from human-made and climate-change-related forest perturbations will increase in frequency and
intensity. |
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ISSN: | 1680-7324 1680-7316 1680-7324 |
DOI: | 10.5194/acp-19-8425-2019 |