HR: 1340h
AN: B43A-0895    [Abstracts]
TI: Rapid Land-Use Changes for Large-Scale Industrialized Agriculture and Associated Estimates of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Brazilian Amazon
AU: * Galford, G L
EM: gillian_galford@brown.edu
AF: Geological Sciences, Brown University, Box 1846, Providence, RI 02912,
AU: * Galford, G L
EM: gillian_galford@brown.edu
AF: The Ecosystems Center, MBL, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543,
AU: Mustard, J
EM: john_mustard@brown.edu
AF: Geological Sciences, Brown University, Box 1846, Providence, RI 02912,
AU: Melillo, J
EM: jmelillo@mbl.edu
AF: The Ecosystems Center, MBL, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543,
AU: Kicklighter, D
EM: dkick@mbl.edu
AF: The Ecosystems Center, MBL, 7 MBL St., Woods Hole, MA 02543,
AU: Cerri, C E
EM: cepcerri@esalq.usp.br
AF: Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz", Universidade de Sao Paulo Avenida Padua Dias, 11:CP: 9, Piracicaba, 13418-900, Brazil
AU: Cerri, C C
EM: cerri@cena.usp.br
AF: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura, Universidade de Sao Paulo Avenida Centenario, 303, Piracicaba, 13400-970, Brazil
AB: Rapid changes in land use in the southwestern Amazon, particularly conversion of native vegetation to mechanized row-crop agriculture, have many ecological consequences, including changes in biogeochemical cycles. Quantifying the patterns and magnitude of changes in row-crop agriculture, and subsequent intensification, are important boundary conditions for estimating regional-scale environmental impacts. We used five years of MODIS data to identify annual changes in row-crop agriculture, focusing on expansion and intensification of croplands in Mato Grosso and Rondônia. Our approach involved a wavelet-smoothing methodology for processing and analyzing MODIS time series data. We validated our results against crop histories from farms in both states. From annual statistics of phenology, we distinguished areas of cropland from other land covers. Results show increases in area of row-crop agriculture of 1% in Rondônia and 6% in Mato Grosso between 2001-2005. Within row-crop agriculture, we calculated the timing and number of crops per year (single or double cropping). Between 2001 and 2005, farmers in Mato Grosso have intensified from single to double cropping on more than 11,000 km2, while in Rondônia, farmers have transitioned to double cropping on over 20 km2. These remote sensing products are now being used as boundary conditions for our biogeochemical model the Terrestrial Ecosystems Model (TEM). We are using TEM to estimate greenhouse-gas emissions, particularly nitrous oxide, associated with the rapid conversion of native ecosystems and managed pastures to heavily industrialized agriculture.
DE: 0402 Agricultural systems
DE: 0469 Nitrogen cycling
DE: 0480 Remote sensing
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting