Carbon and Energy Balance in a Primary Amazonian Forest and Its Relationship with Remote Sensing Estimates

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 16; no. 19; p. 3606
• Main Authors: Alves, Mailson P., da Silva, Rommel B. C., Silva, Cláudio M. Santos e, Bezerra, Bergson G., Rêgo Mendes, Keila, Marinho, Larice A., Barbosa, Melahel L., Nunes, Hildo Giuseppe Garcia Caldas, Dos Santos, José Guilherme Martins, Neves, Theomar Trindade de Araújo Tiburtino, Santana, Raoni A., Peres, Lucas Vaz, da Silva, Alex Santos, Oliveira, Petia, Moutinho, Victor Hugo Pereira, Machado, Wilderclay B., Reis, Iolanda M. S., Seruffo, Marcos Cesar da Rocha, Gaspar, Avner Brasileiro dos Santos, Pereira, Waldeir, Brito-Costa, Gabriel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-10-2024
• Subjects: Air temperature; Annual precipitation; Atmosphere; Biometrics; Biosphere; Brazil; Carbon; Carbon cycle; Carbon cycle (Biogeochemistry); Carbon dioxide; Carbon sinks; Climate change; Climatic data; Correlation; Deforestation; Dry season; Ecosystems; eddy covariance; Emissions; Energy; Energy balance; Energy flow; enhanced vegetation index; Estimates; Evapotranspiration; Exchanging; Fluxes; Forests; Global climate; Global warming; gross primary production; Image processing; normalized vegetation index; Phenology; Photosynthesis; Productivity; Radiation; Rainforests; Remote sensing; Respiration; Satellites; Seasonal variations; Solar energy; Solar radiation; Spacecraft recovery; Temperature dependence; Tropical forests; United Kingdom; Vegetation; Vegetation index; Water availability; Brazil; United Kingdom; South America; United Kingdom > UK; Amazon Basin
• ISSN: 2072-4292; 2072-4292
• DOI: 10.3390/rs16193606

With few measurement sites and a great need to validate satellite data to characterize the exchange of energy and carbon fluxes in tropical forest areas, quantified by the Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) and associated with phenological measurements, there is an increasing need for studies aimed at characterizing the Amazonian environment in its biosphere–atmosphere interaction, considering the accelerated deforestation in recent years. Using data from a flux measurement tower in the Caxiuanã-PA forest (2005–2008), climatic data, CO2 exchange estimated by eddy covariance, as well as Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) data and satellite vegetation indices (from MODIS), this work aimed to describe the site’s energy, climatic and carbon cycle flux patterns, correlating its gross primary productivity with satellite vegetation indices. The results found were: (1) marked seasonality of climatic variables and energy flows, with evapotranspiration and air temperature on the site following the annual march of solar radiation and precipitation; (2) energy fluxes in phase and dependent on available energy; (3) the site as a carbon sink (−569.7 ± 444.9 gC m−2 year−1), with intensity varying according to the site’s annual water availability; (4) low correlation between productivity data and vegetation indices, corroborating data in the literature on these variables in this type of ecosystem. The results show the importance of preserving this type of environment for the mitigation of global warming and the need to improve satellite estimates for this region. NDVI and EVI patterns follow radiative availability, as does LAI, but without direct capture related to GPP data, which correlates better with satellite data only in the months with the highest LAI. The results show the significant difference at a point measurement to a satellite interpolation, presenting how important preserving any type of environment is, even related to its size, for the global climate balance, and also the need to improve satellite estimates for smaller areas.