Scale dependence of the simulated impact of Amazonian deforestation on regional climate

Abstract

Using a global climate model, Amazonian deforestation experiments are conducted perturbing 1, 9, 25, 81 and 121 grid points, each with 5 ensemble members. All experiments show warming and drying over Amazonia. The impact of deforestation on temperature, averaged either over the affected area or a wider area, decreases by a factor of two as the scale of the perturbation increases from 1 to 121 grid points. This is associated with changes in the surface energy balance and consequential impacts on the atmosphere above the regions deforested. For precipitation, as the scale of deforestation increases from 9 to 121 grid points, the reduction in rainfall over the perturbed area decreases from ∼1.5 to ∼1 mm d−1. However, if the surrounding area is considered and large deforestation perturbations made, compensatory increases in precipitation occur such that there is little net change. This is largely associated with changes in horizontal advection of moisture. Disagreements between climate model experiments on how Amazonian deforestation affects precipitation and temperature are, at least in part, due to the spatial scale of the region deforested, differences in the areas used to calculate averages and whether areas surrounding deforestation are included in the overall averages.