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Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming

Tropical deforestation impacts the climate through complex land–atmosphere interactions causing local and regional warming. However, whilst the impacts of deforestation on local temperature are well understood, the regional (nonlocal) response is poorly quantified. Here, we used remote-sensed observ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Butt, Edward W., Baker, Jessica C. A., Bezerra, Francisco G. Silva, von Randow, Celso, Aguiar, Ana P. D., Spracklen, Dominick V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10636322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37903256
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2309123120
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author Butt, Edward W.
Baker, Jessica C. A.
Bezerra, Francisco G. Silva
von Randow, Celso
Aguiar, Ana P. D.
Spracklen, Dominick V.
author_facet Butt, Edward W.
Baker, Jessica C. A.
Bezerra, Francisco G. Silva
von Randow, Celso
Aguiar, Ana P. D.
Spracklen, Dominick V.
author_sort Butt, Edward W.
collection PubMed
description Tropical deforestation impacts the climate through complex land–atmosphere interactions causing local and regional warming. However, whilst the impacts of deforestation on local temperature are well understood, the regional (nonlocal) response is poorly quantified. Here, we used remote-sensed observations of forest loss and dry season land–surface temperature during the period 2001 to 2020 to demonstrate that deforestation of the Amazon caused strong warming at distances up to 100 km away from the forest loss. We apply a machine learning approach to show nonlocal warming due to forest loss at 2–100 km length scales increases the warming due to deforestation by more than a factor 4, from 0.16 K to 0.71 K for each 10-percentage points of forest loss. We estimate that rapid future deforestation under a strong inequality scenario could cause dry season warming of 0.96 K across Mato Grosso state in southern Brazil over the period 2020 to 2050. Reducing deforestation could reduce future warming caused by forest loss to 0.4 K. Our results demonstrate the contribution of tropical deforestation to regional climate warming and the potential for reduced deforestation to deliver regional climate adaptation and resilience with important implications for sustainable management of the Amazon.
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spelling pubmed-106363222023-11-15 Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming Butt, Edward W. Baker, Jessica C. A. Bezerra, Francisco G. Silva von Randow, Celso Aguiar, Ana P. D. Spracklen, Dominick V. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Tropical deforestation impacts the climate through complex land–atmosphere interactions causing local and regional warming. However, whilst the impacts of deforestation on local temperature are well understood, the regional (nonlocal) response is poorly quantified. Here, we used remote-sensed observations of forest loss and dry season land–surface temperature during the period 2001 to 2020 to demonstrate that deforestation of the Amazon caused strong warming at distances up to 100 km away from the forest loss. We apply a machine learning approach to show nonlocal warming due to forest loss at 2–100 km length scales increases the warming due to deforestation by more than a factor 4, from 0.16 K to 0.71 K for each 10-percentage points of forest loss. We estimate that rapid future deforestation under a strong inequality scenario could cause dry season warming of 0.96 K across Mato Grosso state in southern Brazil over the period 2020 to 2050. Reducing deforestation could reduce future warming caused by forest loss to 0.4 K. Our results demonstrate the contribution of tropical deforestation to regional climate warming and the potential for reduced deforestation to deliver regional climate adaptation and resilience with important implications for sustainable management of the Amazon. National Academy of Sciences 2023-10-30 2023-11-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10636322/ /pubmed/37903256 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2309123120 Text en Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Butt, Edward W.
Baker, Jessica C. A.
Bezerra, Francisco G. Silva
von Randow, Celso
Aguiar, Ana P. D.
Spracklen, Dominick V.
Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
title Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
title_full Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
title_fullStr Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
title_full_unstemmed Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
title_short Amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
title_sort amazon deforestation causes strong regional warming
topic Physical Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10636322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37903256
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2309123120
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