10th June 2013 Amazon may lose 65 percent of land biomass by 2060 Large-scale expansion of agriculture in the Amazon through deforestation will be a no-win scenario, according to a new study.
Published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the new study finds that deforestation will not only reduce the capacity of the Amazon's natural carbon sink, but will also inflict climate feedbacks lowering the productivity of pasture and soybeans. The researchers used model simulations to assess how the agricultural yield of the Amazon would be affected under two different land-use scenarios: a business-as-usual scenario, where recent deforestation trends continue and new protected areas are not created; and a governance scenario which assumes Brazilian environmental legislation is implemented. They predict that by 2050, less precipitation caused by deforestation will reduce pasture productivity by 30 per cent in the governance scenario and by 34 per cent in the business-as-usual scenario. Furthermore, increasing temperatures could cause a reduction in soybean yield by 24 per cent in a governance scenario and by 28 per cent under a business-as-usual scenario. Brazil faces a huge challenge, as pressure mounts to convert forestlands to croplands and cattle pasturelands in the Amazon region. A fine balance must be struck, however, as the natural ecosystems sustain food production, maintain water and forest resources, regulate climate and air quality, and ameliorate infectious diseases.
No-win scenario The effects of deforestation will be worst in the eastern Pará and northern Maranhão regions. Here, local precipitation appears to depend strongly on forests, and changes in land cover would drastically affect the local climate – possibly to a point where agriculture becomes unviable. The study involved a collaboration between the Federal University of Viçosa, Federal University of Pampa, Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Woods Hole Research Center.
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