Dinâmica de energia, água e carbono em área de pastagem no semiárido pernambucano

Abstract

With climate change scenarios indicating increase of air temperature, expected to reduce water resources in many regions of the world, such as the semi-arid northeast, due to the increasing emission of greenhouse gases, including dioxide (CO2), studies investigating the relationship between flows of water, energy and CO2 in agricultural ecosystems are of fundamental importance to understand the effect of climate change on agriculture. The eddy covariance (EC) is a method that provides high temporal resolution measurements of fluxes of energy, water and CO2 between the surface and the atmosphere and in recent years has been considered the standard tool this type of study. Thus the present study aimed to i) evaluate the seasonal variation of the flows of energy, water and carbon; ii) verify the energy partitioning and water; iii) quantify the degree to which environmental factors affect the daily and seasonal patterns of evapotranspiration iv) relate the flow of CO2 with plant growth and v) determine the components of the water balance. Between January 2012 and December 2013, flux measurements of sensible heat (H), latent heat (LE) and carbon (FCO2) emissions were performed by the eddy covariance method in a pasture in the semiarid region of Pernambuco. Besides these measures, the monitoring of rainfall (P), the change in water storage (DA) and runoff (ES) to determine the water balance were performed. Plant measurements and NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) were quantified for tracks changes in phenology and vegetation activity. Regression analyzes were performed to assess the relationship between variables. P values in the two years of study were lower than normal climatology of the region. The average air temperature in 2013 increased by 0.66 ◦C compared to 2012. It was observed that the fraction H/Rn increased the wet to the dry season period and all years. H was superior to the LE, except for periods of occurrence of significant events of P. The Priestley-Taylor’s constant (a) indicated that the water storage in the soil affected the evapotranspiration (ET) during almost the whole time. The majority of P was transferred to the atmosphere via ET, followed by runoff (ES), which together totaled over 77% of P. The integration of carbon flow data indicated an average absorption by the ecosystem equivalent to 2.15 Mg C ha−1 yr−1.