Amazonian Deforestation and Climate

Amazonian Deforestation and Climate Edited by J. H. C. Gash Institute of Hydrology, UK C. A. Nobre Centro de Provisão de Tempo Estudos e Climáticos, Brazil J. M. Roberts Institute of Hydrology, UK R. L. Victoria Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Brazil Amazonian Deforestation and Climate describes the results from ABRACOS, the Anglo–Brazilian Amazonian Climate Observation Study. ABRACOS was a major collaboration between British and Brazilian scientists with the objective of quantifying the changes to the water and carbon cycles and the interaction between the soil, vegetation and atmosphere, which occur when the primary rainforest is removed and replaced with cattle ranchland. The book describes the carefully made measurements in the pasture and rainforest at a series of sites across Amazonia. The data are analysed and interpreted to allow them to be used as the basis of accurate and realistic descriptions of the land surface in the Global Circulation Models which are used to predict the climate effects of large scale deforestation. Results are presented at all scales: for the centimetre scale of leaf and soil moisture measurements, the field scale of micrometeorological flux measurements, through to the scale of meteorological models which predict the climate of the whole Amazonian Basin. This book will provide a wealth of information to all those interested in the environmental effects of Amazonian deforestation and how that deforestation will affect the climatology, hydrology and ecology of the region.