Relationship between land surface temperature and fraction of anthropized area in the Atlantic forest region, Brazil

Abstract

There is growing evidence that modification of tropical forests to pasture or other anthropic uses (anthropization) leads to land surface warming at local and regional scales; however, the degree of this effect is unknown given the dependence on physiographic and atmospheric conditions. We investigated the dependence of satellite land surface temperature (LST) on the fraction of anthropized area index, defined as the fraction of non-forested percentual area within 120m square boxes, sampled over a large tropical forest dominated ecosystem spatial domain in the Atlantic Forest biome, southeastern Brazil. The LST estimated at a 30 m resolution, showed a significant dependence on elevation and topographic aspect, which controlled the average thermal regime by 2~4°C and 1~2°C, respectively. The correction of LST by these topographic factors allowed to detect a dependence of LST on the fraction of non-forested area. Accordingly, the relationship between LST and the fraction of non-forested area showed a positive linear relationship (R2 = 0.63), whereby each 25% increase of non-forest area resulted in increased 1°C. As such, increase of the maximum temperature (~4°C) would occur in the case of 100% increase of non-forested area. We conclude that our study area, composed to Atlantic forest, appears to show regulatory characteristics of temperature attenuation as a local climatic ecosystem service, which may have mitigation effects on the accelerated global warming.

Use of geospatial tools to predict the risk of contamination by SARS-CoV-2 in urban cemeteries

“…The climate of Passo Fundo is classified as being located in the fundamental temperate (C) and humid fundamental (f) climactic zone, with an average summer temperature above 22 °C (the average annual wind speed is 4.1 m/s (NE)), ranging from 660 to 700 m in height ( Bonatti et al, 2019 , Wanderley et al, 2019 ; Embrapa, 2021; Maroni et al, 2021 ). The native ecosystem in this area consists of the vegetation of the Atlantic Forest, with arboreal specimen of mixed rainforest, which currently only exists in fragmented areas outside of the urban perimeter ( Neckel and Silva, J.L.da., Saraiva, P.P., Kujawa, H.A., Araldi, J., Paladini, E.P., , 2020 , Maroni et al, 2021 ).…”

Strong influence of trees outside forest in regulating microclimate of intensively modified Afromontane landscapes

“…The classes were treated as dummy variables due to their categorical nature. Following Wanderley et al (2019), we calculated the topographically corrected LST with Eq. ( 6):…”

“…Furthermore, they can vary spatially within the forest (Chen et al, 1999). This variability has different magnitudes at different latitudes: for example, tropical forests experience the strongest cooling effect (Li et al, 2015;Wanderley et al, 2019). The temperature buffering provided by tree cover may protect ecosystems from climate change consequences (Zomer et al, 2016;Ellison et al, 2017;De Frenne et al, 2019;Wanderley et al, 2019), but the magnitude of the buffering is affected by the forest area (Ewers and Banks-Leite, 2013).…”

“…This variability has different magnitudes at different latitudes: for example, tropical forests experience the strongest cooling effect (Li et al, 2015;Wanderley et al, 2019). The temperature buffering provided by tree cover may protect ecosystems from climate change consequences (Zomer et al, 2016;Ellison et al, 2017;De Frenne et al, 2019;Wanderley et al, 2019), but the magnitude of the buffering is affected by the forest area (Ewers and Banks-Leite, 2013). In time, forest microclimates will likely warm like the macroclimate around them, and fragmentation may accelerate this process (Ewers and Banks-Leite, 2013;Li et al, 2016).…”

Avaliação do desmatamento em Itaiópolis, Estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil, usando imagens RapidEye

“…Zeraatpisheh et al (2020) aplicaram uma metodologia baseada na análise de oito propriedades do solo em amostras antes e depois do desmatamento, concluindo que a conversão de florestas nativas em áreas de cultivo provoca redução na qualidade do solo. No tocante às mudanças climáticas, recente estudo empreendido no Estado de São Paulo demonstrou que o desmate de fragmento da Mata Atlântica eleva a temperatura em escala local, sendo na magnitude de 1 °C caso haja supressão de 25% de uma área de 1 ha, implicando aumento de 4 °C caso todo o fragmento seja suprimido (Wanderley et al, 2019).…”