Effect of Deforestation on Land Surface Temperature in the Chiquitania Region, Bolivia

Oswaldo Maillard (), Roberto Vides-Almonacid, Álvaro Salazar and Daniel M. Larrea-Alcazar
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Oswaldo Maillard: Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano (FCBC), Av. Ibérica Calle 6 Oeste 95, esq. Puerto Busch, Barrio Las Palmas, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Roberto Vides-Almonacid: Fundación para la Conservación del Bosque Chiquitano (FCBC), Av. Ibérica Calle 6 Oeste 95, esq. Puerto Busch, Barrio Las Palmas, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Álvaro Salazar: Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de La Serena, Casilla 554, La Serena 1700000, Chile
Daniel M. Larrea-Alcazar: Asociación Boliviana para la Investigación y Conservación de Ecosistemas Andino-Amazónicos (ACEAA-Conservación Amazónica), Calle 16, Nro. 8230, Calacoto, La Paz, Bolivia

Land, 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-22

Abstract: Neotropical forests offer alternatives to surface cooling and their conservation is an effective solution for mitigating the effects of climate change. Little is known about the importance of tropical dry forests for temperature regulation in Chiquitania, a region with increasing deforestation rates. The impact that deforestation processes are having on the surface temperature in Chiquitania remains an open question. This study evaluated trends in forest cover loss based on land surface temperatures (°C) in forested and deforested areas in Chiquitania. We hypothesized a positive relationship between higher deforestation and a temperature increase, which would decrease the resilience of highly disturbed Chiquitano forests. We evaluated ten sampling sites (10 × 10 km), including five in forested areas with some type of protection and the other five in areas with populated centers and accelerated forest loss. We developed scripts on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform using information from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI, MOD13A2) and the daytime and nighttime Land Surface Temperature (LST, MYD11A1) from MODIS products for the period 2001–2021. The statistical significance of the trends of the time series averages of the MODIS products was analyzed using a nonparametric Mann–Kendall test and the degree of the relationship between the variables was determined using the Pearson statistic. Our results based on NDVI analysis showed consistent vegetation growth in forested areas across the study period, while the opposite occurred in deforested lands. Regarding surface temperature trends, the results for daytime LST showed a positive increase in the four deforested areas. Comparatively, daytime LST averages in deforested areas were warmer than those in forested areas, with a difference of 3.1 °C. Additionally, correlation analyses showed a significant relationship between low NDVI values due to deforestation in three sites and an increase in daytime LST, while for nighttime LST this phenomenon was registered in two deforested areas. Our results suggest a significant relationship between the loss of forest cover and the increase in land surface temperature in Chiquitania. This study could be the first step in designing and implementing an early climate–forest monitoring system in this region.

Keywords: Amazon basin; climate change; climate refugees; protected areas; tropical dry forests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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