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- Title
FOREST COVER-RAINFALL RELATIONSHIPS IN A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT: THE ATLANTIC FOREST OF BRAZIL.
- Authors
Webb, Thomas J.; Woodward, F. Ian; Hannah, Lee; Gaston, Kevin J.
- Abstract
The article analyzes the relationship between forest cover and total rainfall in the state of S00E3o Paulo, which lies within the diverse and highly endangered Atlantic forest region of Brazil, using a database. The Atlantic forest comprises a relatively narrow strip of low ground east of the high coastal mountain range, with a plateau of around 600 m elevation extending inland on the west of this range. The trends in rainfall over the period 1962-1992 across S00E3o Paulo state were investigated simply by regressing mean annual rainfall on year. The residuals from these analyses were checked for temporal autocorrelation using the test described in Sokal and Rohif (1995:394). A variety of models using both measures of rainfall in turn as the response variable were considered. No evidence in the data set for a reduction in rainfall across S00E3o Paulo state was found over the period 1962- 1992, despite the loss of some 4000 kilometer square of forest during that time. Plus mean annual rain- fall increased up to the early 1980s. This suggests that factors other than vegetation strongly influence climate in this region. For instance, certain global climate change models predict increases in precipitation in this area of Brazil, which would clearly be independent of deforestation. The analysis shows that not every shower is due to forest and that land-cover conversion is only one of the many factors that affect biosphere-atmosphere interactions.
- Subjects
SAO Paulo (Brazil : State); BRAZIL; RAINFALL; RAINFALL periodicity; VEGETATION &; climate; CLIMATE change; STATISTICAL correlation; TREES
- Publication
Ecological Applications, 2005, Vol 15, Issue 6, p1968
- ISSN
1051-0761
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/04-1675