Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the point is made that the burning of the forests is responsible for some 75% of
Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions.
As might be expected, modeling and remote sensing both play an important
part in assessing the impacts of deforestation climate. An early modeling study is
exemplified by the use of a coupled model of atmosphere and biosphere that
showed that, when forests were degraded, there was a significant increase in
surface temperature and decrease in precipitation and evapotranspiration
(Shukla et al.
1990
). A research project using geosynchronous visible and
infrared satellite data revealed differences in local circulation and that dry
season rainfall occurrence is larger over deforested and non-forested (savanna)
regions than over areas of dense forest (Negri et al.
2004
). The following essay
provides an in-depth look at a remote sensing project in the Amazon.
3.5 ESSAY: Remote sensing of Amazonia deforestation and
vegetation regrowth: inputs to climate change research
Paul Mausel
1
, Dengsheng Lu
2
and Nelson Dias
3
1
Indiana State University,
2
Indiana University,
3
Universidade de Taubat ยด
Moist tropical forest deforestation and vegetation succession are topics of great
interest throughout the world. The area with the most abundant moist mature
forests in the world is Amazonia (5 000 000 sq. km). One of the largest and most
respected research groups studying Amazonia deforestation and succession is
the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment (LBA) that is a research
initiative led by scientists from NASA, INPE (Brazilian Space Agency), and the
European Union (EU). It is designed to create new knowledge needed to
understand the climatological, ecological, biogeochemical, and hydrological
functioning of Amazonia, the impact of land use change on these functions, and
the interactions between Amazonia and the Earth system (lba.cptec.inpe.br/lba/
indexi.html). Collectively, there are approximately 130 research groups and 155
projects engaged in seven categories of LBA research interest (Figure
3.11
).
This essay focuses most on land use and ecological aspects of LBA interest
with an emphasis on classification and analysis of (1) deforestation, (2) vegeta-
tion secondary succession, (3) land use/land cover (LULC) change, and (4)
biomass modeling in several Amazonia research sites. The essay authors are
participants in the LBA project ''Human and Physical Dimensions of LULC
Change in Amazonia.'' This project does not focus on atmospheric phenomena,
but elements of its research can provide important data for modeling carbon
sequestration and release of carbon (CO
2
) into the atmosphere. LULC research
has connections with carbon storage and exchange, atmospheric chemistry, and
the physical climate system (Figure
3.11
). Classifying, analyzing, and modeling
LULC in Amazonia through remote sensing provides valuable data for a variety
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