Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-5f56664f6-spj7j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T06:18:06.056Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

23 - Large-scale hydrological impacts of tropical forest conversion

from Part III - Forest disturbance, conversion and recovery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2010

By
M. H. Costa
Edited by
M. Bonell  and
L. A. Bruijnzeel
M. H. Costa
Affiliation:
Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil
M. Bonell
Affiliation:
UNESCO, Paris
L. A. Bruijnzeel
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Get access

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Hydrologists are facing important changes in the direction of their science. New tools, non-traditional datasets and a better understanding of the connection between land-surface hydrology and the rest of the climate system are being developed. Changes are so fundamental that a new agenda for land surface hydrology research has been proposed (Entekhabi et al., 1999).

One of the major challenges is related to large-scale hydrology. Part of this challenge is to reconcile the differences between two sciences. Large-scale hydrology is being studied typically by scientists with a background in hydrology or the atmospheric sciences, and the historical approach of each discipline is clearly present. Table 23.1 shows the different definitions of the spatial scales in common use. Here, we consider large-scale to be the scale between 100 and 10 000 km, a mix of the large catchment and continental scales of hydrology and a mix of synoptic and large scales found in atmospheric sciences.

Hydrologists and atmospheric scientists advanced into the new research field of large-scale hydrology a few decades ago: hydrologists scaled up their methods, atmospheric scientists scaled down their techniques. Of course there were conflicts caused by the different assumptions, jargon, orientations and methodologies used by the two sciences because of decades of separate development. Even so, the latter is hardly the beginning of the difficulties: in one of the pioneer essays in this area, Eagleson (1986) pointed out that large-scale hydrology has two characteristics that make it unique: interdisciplinarity and the presence of strong feedbacks.

Type
Chapter
Information
Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics
Past, Present and Future Hydrological Research for Integrated Land and Water Management
 , pp. 590 - 597
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bonan, G. B. (1996). A land surface model (LSM, version 1.0) for ecological, hydrological, and atmospheric studies: technical description and user's guide, NCAR Technical Note 417, 150 pp
Bonell, M. (1998). Possible impacts of climate variability and change on tropical forest hydrology. Climatic Change, 39, 215–272CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosch, J. M. and Hewlett, J. D. (1982). A review of catchment experiments to determine the effect of vegetation changes on water yield and evapotranspiration. Journal of Hydrology, 103, 323–333Google Scholar
Brouwell, L. C., 1996: Nutrient cycling in pristine and logged tropical rainforest: a study in Guyana. Tropenbos Guyana Series no. 1, Tropenbos, Georgetown, Guyana, 224 p
Bruijnzeel, L. A. (1990). Hydrology of moist forests and the effects of conversion: a state of knowledge review. UNESCO – Int. Inst. for Aerospace Survey and Earth Science. Publication of the Humid Tropics Programme. Free University, Amsterdam, 224 p
Bruijnzeel, L. A. (1996). Predicting the hydrological impacts of land cover transformation in the humid tropics: the need for integrated research. In: Amazonian deforestation and climate. J. H. C. Gash, C. A. Nobre, J. M. Roberts and R. L. Victoria, Eds. John Wiley and Sons, 1st ed. p. 15–56
Canadell, J., Jackson, R. B., Ehleringer, J. R., Mooney, H. A., Sala, O. E. and Schulze, E.-D., (1996). Maximum rooting depth of vegetation types at the global scale. Oecologia, 583–595CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coe, M. T., 2000: Modeling terrestrial hydrologic systems at the continental scale: Testing the accuracy of an atmospheric GCM. Journal of Climate 13, 686–7042.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, M. H. and Foley, J. A., 1997: The water balance of the Amazon basin: Dependence on vegetation cover and canopy conductance. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 102, 23,973–23,989CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, M. H. and Foley, J. A., 1999: Trends in the hydrological cycle of the Amazon basin. Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres, 104, 14,189–14,198CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, M. H. and Foley, J. A., 2000: Combined effects of deforestation and double atmospheric CO2 concentrations on the climate of Amazonia. Journal of Climate, 12, 18–352.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, P. M., Betts, R. A., Jones, C. D., Spall, S. A., Totterdell, I. J., 2000: Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model. Nature, 408, 184–187CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutrim, E., Martin, D. W., Rabin, R., 1995: Enhancement of cumulus clouds over deforested lands in Amazonia. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 76, 1801–18052.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delire, C., Behling, P., Coe, M. T., Foley, J. A., Jacob, R., Kutzbach, J., Liu, Z. Y., Vavrus, S., 2001: Simulated response of the atmosphere-ocean system to deforestation in the Indonesian Archipelago. Geophysical Research Letters, 28, 2081–2084CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dias, M. A. F. S., P. Regnier, 1996: Simulation of mesoscale circulations in a deforested area of Rondônia in the dry season. In: Amazonian deforestation and climate. J. H. C. Gash, C. A. Nobre, J. M. Roberts and R. L. Victoria, Eds. John Wiley and Sons, 1st ed. p. 531–547
Dickinson, R. E., A. Henderson-Sellers, P. J. Kennedy and M. F. Wilson, 1986: Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS) for the NCAR CCM, NCAR/TN-275-STR, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
Dickinson, R. E., A. Henderson-Sellers, P. J. Kennedy, 1993: Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS), version 1e as coupled to the NCAR Community Model. NCAR Technical Note NCAR/TN-387+STR, 72 pp
Dickinson, R. E., Kennedy, P., 1992: Impacts on regional climate of Amazon deforestation. Geophysical Research Letters, 19, 1947–1950CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dirmeyer, P. A., Shukla, , 1994: Albedo as a modulator of climate response to tropical deforestation. Journal of Geophysical Research, 99D, 20863–20877CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dooge, J. C. I., 1997: Scale problems in hydrology. In: Reflections on hydrology – Science and practice. N. Buras, ed. American Geophysical Union, 1st ed., p. 84–145
Ducroudé, N., Laval, K. and Perrier, A., 1993: A new set of parameterizations of the hydrologic exchanges at the land/atmosphere interface within the LMD atmospheric general circulation model. Journal of Climate, 6, 248–273Google Scholar
Eagleson, P. S., 1986: The emergence of global-scale hydrology. Water Resources Research, 22, 6S–14SCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastman, J. L., Coughenour, M. B., Pielke, R. A., 2001: Does grazing affect regional climate?Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2, 243–2532.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltahir, E. A. B., 1996: Role of vegetation in sustaining large-scale atmospheric circulations in the tropics. Journal of Geophysical Research, 101, 4255–4268CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltahir, E. A. B. and Bras, R. L., 1994a: Sensitivity of regional climate to deforestation in the Amazon basin. Advances in Water Resources, 17, 101–115CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltahir, E. A. B. and Bras, R. L., 1994b: Precipitation recycling in the Amazon basin. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 120, 861–880CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Entekhabi, D., Asrar, G. R., Betts, A. K., Beven, K. J., Bras, R. L., Duffy, C. J., Dunne, T., Koster, R. D., Lettenmaier, D. P., McLaughlin, D. B., Shuttleworth, W. J., Genuchten, M. T., Wei, M. Y., Wood, E. F., 1999: An agenda for land surface hydrology research and a call for the second international hydrological decade. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 80, 2043–20582.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, J. A., Prentice, I. C., Ramankutty, N., Levis, S., Pollard, D., Sitch, S., Haxeltine, A., 1996: An integrated biosphere model of land surface processes, terrestrial carbon balance, and vegetation dynamics. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 10, 603–628CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haffer, J. 1969: Speciation in Amazonian forest birds. Science, 165, 131–137CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hahmann, A. N. and Dickinson, R. E., 1997: RCCM2-BATS model over tropical South America: applications to tropical deforestation. Journal of Climate, 10, 1944–19642.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson—Sellers, A., Dickinson, R E., Durbidge, T. B., Kennedy, P. J., McGuffie, K., Pitman, A. J., 1993: Tropical deforestation: modeling local to regional scale climate change. Journal of Geophysical Research, 98, 7289–7315CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodnett, M. G., J. Tomasella, A. de O. Marques Filho, M. D. Oyama, 1996: Deep soil uptake by forest and pasture in central Amazonia: predictions from long-term daily rainfall data using a simple water balance model. In: Amazonian deforestation and climate. J. H. C. Gash, C. A. Nobre, J. M. Roberts and R. L. Victoria, Eds. John Wiley and Sons, 1st ed. p. 79–100
Jarvis, P. G. and McNaughton, K. G., 1986: Stomatal control of transpiration: scaling up from leaf to region, Advances in Ecological Research, 15, 1–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, R. B., 1999: The importance of root distributions for hydrology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem functioning. In: Integrating hydrology, ecosystem dynamics, and biogeochemistry in complex landscapes. J. Tenhunen, P. Kabat, Eds. John Wiley and Sons, 1st ed. p. 219–240
Kiang, J. E. and Eltahir, E. A. B., 1999: Role of ecosystem dynamics in biosphere-atmosphere interaction over the coastal region of West Africa. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 104, 31,173–31,189CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleidon, A., Lorenz, S., 2001: Deep roots sustain Amazonian rainforest in climate model simulations of the last ice age. Geophysical Research Letters, 28, 2425–2428CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubatzki, C. and Claussen, M., 1998: Simulation of the global bio-geophysical interactions during the Last Glacial Maximum, Climate Dynamics, 14, 461–471CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawton, R. O., Nair, U. S., Pielke, R. A., Welch, Sr., R. M., 2001: Climatic impact of tropical lowland deforestation on nearby montane cloud forests. Science 294: 584–587Google ScholarPubMed
Lean, J., Rowntree, P. R., 1993: A GCM simulation of the impact of Amazonian deforestation on climate using an improved canopy representation. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 119, 509–530CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lean, J., C. R. Bunton, C. A. Nobre, P. R. Rowntree, 1996: The simulated impact of Amazonian deforestation on climate using measured ABRACOS vegetation characteristics. In: Amazonian deforestation and climate. J. H. C. Gash, C. A. Nobre, J. M. Roberts and R. L. Victoria, Eds. John Wiley and Sons, 1st ed. p. 549–576
Lean, J. and Rowntree, P. R., 1997: Understanding the sensitivity of a GCM simulation of amazonian deforestation to the specification of vegetation and soil characteristics. Journal of Climate, 10, 1216–12352.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lohmann, D. E.Raschke, B.Nijssen, B., Lettenmaier, D. P., 1998: Regional scale hydrology: I. Formulation of the VIC-2L model coupled to a routing model. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 43, 131–141CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manzi, O. and S. Planton, 1996: Calibration of a GCM using ABRACOS and ARME data and simulation of Amazonian deforestation. In: Amazonian deforestation and climate. J. H. C. Gash, C. A. Nobre, J. M. Roberts and R. L. Victoria, Eds. John Wiley and Sons, 1st ed. p. 505–530
Maslin, M. A. and Burns, S. J., 2000: Reconstruction of the Amazon basin effective moisture availability over the past 14,000 years. Science, 290, 2285–2287Google ScholarPubMed
Matsuyama, H., 1992: The water budget in the Amazon river basin during the FGGE period. Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan, 70, 1071–1083CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayle, F. E.; Burbridge, R., Killeen, T. J., 2000: Millennial-scale dynamics of southern Amazonian rainforests. Science, 290, 2291–2294CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monteith, J. L., 1995: Accommodation between transpiring vegetation and the convective boundary layer, Journal of Hydrology, 166, 251–263CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nepstad, D. C., Carvalho, C. R., Davidson, E. A., Lefebvre, P. A., Negreiros, G. H., Silva, E. D. da, Thomas, A. Stone, Trumbore, S. E., Vieira, S., 1994: The role of deep roots in the hydrological and carbon cycles of Amazonian forests and pastures. Nature, 372, 666–669CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noilhan, J. and Planton, S., 1989: A simple parameterization of land surface processes for meteorological models. Monthly Weather Review, 117, 536–5492.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penman, H. L., 1948: Natural evaporation from open water, bare soil and grass. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, A198, 116–140Google Scholar
Pielke, R. A., Avissar, R., Raupach, M., Dolman, A. J., Zeng, X. B., Denning, A. S., 1998: Interactions between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems: influence on weather and climate. Global Change Biology, 4, 461–475CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polcher, J. and Laval, K., 1994: The impact of African and Amazonian deforestation on tropical climate. Journal of Hydrology, 155, 389–405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Priestley, C. H. B. and Taylor, R. J., 1972: On the assessment of surface heat flux and evaporation using large-scale parameters. Monthly Weather Review, 100, 81–922.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randall, D. A., Ed., 2000: General Circulation Model Development: Past, Present, and Future. Academic Press, 1st ed., 807 p
Sahin, V. and Hall, M. J., 1996: The effects of afforestation and deforestation on water yields. Journal of Hydrology, 178, 293–309CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellers, P. J., 1992: Biophysical models of land surface processes. In: Climate system modelling, K. E. Trenberth, ed. Cambridge University Press, 1st ed. p. 451–490
Sellers, P. J., Mintz, Y., Sud, Y. C., and Dalcher, A., 1986: A simple biosphere model (SiB) for use within general circulation models, Journal of Atmospheric Science, 43, 505–5312.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellers, P. J., Los, S. O., Tucker, C. J., Justice, C. O., Dazlich, D. A., Collatz, G. J. and Randall, D. A., 1996: A revised land surface parameterization (SiB2) for atmospheric GCMs. Part I: Model formulationJournal of Climate, 9, 676–7052.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shuttleworth, W. J., 1988: Evaporation from Amazonian rainforest. Proc. R. Soc. London, B 233, 321–346CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sud, Y. C., Walker, G. K., Kim, J.-H., Liston, G. E., Sellers, P. J., Lau, W. K.-M., 1996: Biogeophysical consequences of a tropical deforestation scenario: a GCM simulation study. Journal of Climate, 9, 3225–32472.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trenberth, K. (Ed.), 1992: Climate system modeling. Cambridge University Press, 1st ed. 788 p
Hammen, T. and Absy, M. L., 1994: Amazonia during the last glacial. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 109, 247–261CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vörösmarty, C. J., Moore III, B., Grace, A. L., Gildea, M. P., 1989: Continental scale models of water balance and fluvial transport: an application to South America. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 3, 241–265CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, G. K., Sud, Y. C., Atlas, R., 1995: Impact of the ongoing Amazonian deforestation on local precipitation: A GCM simulation study. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 76, 346–3612.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warrilow, D. A., A. B. Sangster, A. Slingo, 1986: Modelling of land surface processes and their influence on European climate. UK Meteorological Office Met O 20 Dynamical Climatology Tech. Note DCTN 38. 92 p
Xue, Y. K., Sellers, P. J., Kinter, J. L. III, Shukla, J., 1991: A simplified biosphere model for global climate studies. Journal of Climate, 4, 345–3642.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeng, N., (1999). Seasonal cycle and interannual variability in the Amazon hydrologic cycleJournal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 104, 9097–9106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeng, N. and Neelin, J. D. (1999). A land-atmosphere interaction theory for the tropical deforestation problem. Journal of Climate, 12, 857–8722.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×