Abstract
The albedo is an important variable that controls the balance of radiation and energy of the atmosphere, so changes in land cover cause alterations in albedo values, influencing changes in climate behavior at different scales. The goal in this work was to investigate the possible occurrence and causes associated with surface albedo trends within the Atlantic Forest biome (São Francisco de Paula, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), during the last thirty years (1987-2017), evaluating the impacts of the forest cover structure on albedo trends. The study included images of the TM/Landsat 5 and OLI/Landsat 8 sensors over the period 1987 to 2017. The surface albedo was obtained from the SEBAL algorithm, which includes in its variables the reflectance values of each band, reflected solar radiation and atmospheric transmissivity. The trend analysis was performed by the Mann-Kendall test verifying the existence of significant trends over 30 years. Subsequently, the influence of vegetation greenness on the trend presented by the albedo surface was evaluated. Approximately 92% of the pixels with significant tendency are associated with the decreasing tendency of the albedo. The downward trend was observed with the change from the field to the forest cover, while increasing trends were influenced by the change in forest cover, such as the suppression of individuals from the upper forest canopy. The forest populations in areas of the Mata Atlântica biome had a large participation in the energy balance, which exposed a reduction of approximately 60% of the surface albedo with its implantation, showing its importance for reducing the emission of energy to the atmosphere. The spatial pattern of the trend distribution of the surface albedo is related to the concentration and vigor of the arboreal vegetation.
Highlights
Issues related to climate change have been a constant theme of international discussions over the last decades in order to establish measures aimed at reducing the emission of pollutant gases as well as finding mitigating measures for this problem (Souza & Azevedo, 2012; Global Climate Change, 2018)
The Mann-Kendall test revealed the existence of negative slope for pixels where the native Field was replaced by Forest plantations of Pinus spp. and Eucalyptus spp. when observed a period of 30 years
The study shows that the forest stands present in areas of the Atlantic Forest biome have a large participation in the energy balance, which exposes a reduction of approximately 60% of the surface albedo in the summer with its implantation, showing its importance to reduce the emission of energy into the atmosphere
Summary
Issues related to climate change have been a constant theme of international discussions over the last decades in order to establish measures aimed at reducing the emission of pollutant gases as well as finding mitigating measures for this problem (Souza & Azevedo, 2012; Global Climate Change, 2018). In this context, forests are relevant due to their potential for storage and capture of pollutants from the atmosphere, and for the atmosphere carbon storage and sequestration (Nowak et al, 2013; Ni et al, 2016; Planque et al, 2017). The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), obtained from the ratio between the reflectance difference in the near infrared band jas.ccsenet.org
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