The Amazon rain forest experiences the combined pressures from human-made deforestation and progressing climate change, causing severe and potentially disruptive perturbations of the ecosystem's integrity and stability. To intensify research on critical aspects of Amazonian biosphere-atmosphere exchange, the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) has been established in the central Amazon Basin. Here we present a multi-year analysis of backward trajectories to derive an effective footprint region of the observatory, which spans large parts of the particularly vulnerable eastern basin. Further, we characterize geospatial properties of the footprint regions, such as climatic conditions, distribution of ecoregions, land cover categories, deforestation dynamics, agricultural expansion, fire regimes, infrastructural development, protected areas, and future deforestation scenarios. This study is meant to be a resource and reference work, helping to embed the ATTO observations into the larger context of human-caused transformations of Amazonia. We conclude that the chances to observe an unperturbed rain forest-atmosphere exchange at the ATTO site will likely decrease in the future, whereas the atmospheric signals from human-made and climate-change-related forest perturbations will increase in frequency and intensity.
1.Max Planck Inst Chem, Multiphase Chem Dept, D-55128 Mainz, Germany 2.Max Planck Inst Chem, Biogeochem Dept, D-55128 Mainz, Germany 3.Johannes Gutenberg Univ Mainz, Inst Mol Physiol, D-55128 Mainz, Germany 4.Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Phys, BR-05508900 Sao Paulo, Brazil 5.Masaryk Univ, Fac Sci, Res Ctr Tox Cpds Environm, Brno 62500, Czech Republic 6.Max Planck Inst Chem, Air Chem Dept, D-55128 Mainz, Germany 7.Max Planck Inst Biogeochem, Dept Biogeochem Syst, D-07701 Jena, Germany 8.Univ Calif San Diego, Scripps Inst Oceanog, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA 9.Univ Almeria, Dept Agron, Almeria, Spain 10.Univ Lille, IMT Lille Douai, SAGE, Lille, France 11.Univ Fed Uberlandia, BR-38408100 Uberlandia, MG, Brazil 12.Deutsch Wetterdienst, D-63067 Offenbach, Germany 13.Phys Tech Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, D-38116 Braunschweig, Germany 14.Jinan Univ, Inst Environm & Climate Res, Guangzhou, Guangdong, Peoples R China 15.Karl Franzens Univ Graz, Inst Plant Sci, Holteigasse 6, A-8010 Graz, Austria
Recommended Citation:
Poehlker, Christopher,Walter, David,Paulsen, Hauke,et al. Land cover and its transformation in the backward trajectory footprint region of the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory[J]. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS,2019-01-01,19(13):8425-8470