The Brazilian Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (BRAMS) coupled with the dynamic vegetation scheme known as General Energy and Mass Transport Model (GEMTM) and land cover scenarios in the Amazon Basin and greenhouse gas concentration increase scenarios produced by Community Climate System Model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research are used to evaluate the impacts on the hydrological cycle of the Amazon Basin. The 2050 estimates of deforestation and the greenhouse gas concentration scenarios (A2) impact significantly the energy and moisture budgets. The dynamic structure of the atmosphere and consequently the moisture and mass convergence in the region are projected to be significantly different in 2050. The changes are more intense in the simulations with the combined effect of deforestation and greenhouse gas increase. In the deforestation scenario, a positive feedback is established in which changes in the regional circulation reduced the moisture convergence and precipitation in the region. In the increased greenhouse gas concentration scenario, with and without deforestation, a negative (positive) feedback is established in the rainy (dry) season in which the regional circulation changes (moisture convergence) are responsible for the reduction of precipitation. The results indicate that rapid destruction of the forest and the climate changes due to human activity can become irreversible, and that changes on hydrological cycle and perturbation in the complex relation between soil, plant and atmosphere can trigger significant changes in the ecosystems in the Amazon, once these systems do not present resilience or capacity to adapt to the magnitude of changes in the climate.
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Rocha et al. (2015) studied this question.
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