Energy and water fluxes above a cacao agroforestry system in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, indicate effects of land-use change on local climate

Abstract

Rapid conversion of tropical rainforests to agricultural land-use types occurs throughout Indonesia and South-East Asia. We hypothesize that these changes in land-use affect the turbulent heat exchange processes between vegetation and the atmosphere, and the radiative properties of the surface, and therefore, induce an impact on local climate and water flows. As part of the international research project (SFB 552, Stability of Rainforest Margins in Indonesia, STORMA) the turbulent heat fluxes over a cacao agroforestry system (AFS) were investigated, using the eddy covariance technique. These first heat flux observations above a cacao AFS showed an unexpectedly large contribution of the sensible heat flux to the total turbulent heat transport, resulting in an averaged day-time Bowen ratio of /3 = H/λE 1. Seasonality of β did mainly coincide with the seasonal course of precipitation, which amounted to 1970 mm yr -1 during the investigated period. The findings are compared to invastigations at four neotropical rain forests where daytime β were substantially smaller than 1. All discussed sites received similar incident short wave radiation, however, precipitation at the neotropical sites was much higher. Our first observations in a nearby Indonesian upland rain forest where precipitation was comparable to that at the cacao AFS showed an intermediate behaviour. Differences in β between the cacao AFS and the tropical forests are discussed as a consequence of differing precipitation amounts, and albedo. From these comparisons we conclude that conversion from tropical forests to cacao AFS affects the energy fluxes towards increased heating of the day-time convective boundary-layer.