Changes in Land Use in the Western Amazon and the Microclima’s Response to the Occurrence of Extreme Events

Abstract The reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change constantly reveal the possibility that climatic extremes will increase in the coming years. The Amazon Region has experienced these events frequently, which has contributed to the fact that more studies about its susceptibility are carried out. This study aimed to identify the microclimate response to droughts of 2005 and 2010 in areas of native forest and pasture in the Western Amazon by analyzing specific air humidity, air temperature and net radiation. The data used come from towers belonging to Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia. The results indicate that in the years studied there were significant changes in the variables studied at both sites, with reductions of approximately 16% in specific humidity and increases of up to 3.76% in temperature. However, the effects of the 2010 drought may have been softened in the forest due to the event being preceded by an extreme flood event (2009). The results show that the conversion of forest areas to pasture, together with extreme events, can interfere in the meteorological variables, being necessary the continuous study of this dynamics for the microclimatic implications to be elucidated.