TY - JOUR A1 - Hayhoe, Shelby J. A1 - Neill, Christopher A1 - Porder, Stephen A1 - McHorney, Richard A1 - Lefebvre, Paul A1 - Coe, Michael T. A1 - Elsenbeer, Helmut A1 - Krusche, Alex V. T1 - Conversion to soy on the Amazonian agricultural frontier increases streamflow without affecting stormflow dynamics JF - Global change biology N2 - Large-scale soy agriculture in the southern Brazilian Amazon now rivals deforestation for pasture as the region's predominant form of land use change. Such landscape-level change can have substantial consequences for local and regional hydrology, but these effects remain relatively unstudied in this ecologically and economically important region. We examined how the conversion to soy agriculture influences water balances and stormflows using stream discharge (water yields) and the timing of discharge (stream hydrographs) in small (2.5-13.5 km2) forested and soy headwater watersheds in the Upper Xingu Watershed in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. We monitored water yield for 1 year in three forested and four soy watersheds. Mean daily water yields were approximately four times higher in soy than forested watersheds, and soy watersheds showed greater seasonal variability in discharge. The contribution of stormflows to annual streamflow in all streams was low (< 13% of annual streamflow), and the contribution of stormflow to streamflow did not differ between land uses. If the increases in water yield observed in this study are typical, landscape-scale conversion to soy substantially alters water-balance, potentially altering the regional hydrology over large areas of the southern Amazon. KW - Amazon KW - baseflow KW - hydrology KW - land use change KW - soybean cultivation KW - water yield Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02392.x SN - 1354-1013 VL - 17 IS - 5 SP - 1821 EP - 1833 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Malden ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neill, Christopher A1 - Coe, Michael T. A1 - Riskin, Shelby H. A1 - Krusche, Alex V. A1 - Elsenbeer, Helmut A1 - Macedo, Marcia N. A1 - McHorney, Richard A1 - Lefebvre, Paul A1 - Davidson, Eric A. A1 - Scheffler, Raphael A1 - Figueira, Adelaine Michela e Silva A1 - Porder, Stephen A1 - Deegan, Linda A. T1 - Watershed responses to Amazon soya bean cropland expansion and intensification JF - Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London : B, Biological sciences N2 - The expansion and intensification of soya bean agriculture in southeastern Amazonia can alter watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry by changing the land cover, water balance and nutrient inputs. Several new insights on the responses of watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry to deforestation in Mato Grosso have emerged from recent intensive field campaigns in this region. Because of reduced evapotranspiration, total water export increases threefold to fourfold in soya bean watersheds compared with forest. However, the deep and highly permeable soils on the broad plateaus on which much of the soya bean cultivation has expanded buffer small soya bean watersheds against increased stormflows. Concentrations of nitrate and phosphate do not differ between forest or soya bean watersheds because fixation of phosphorus fertilizer by iron and aluminium oxides and anion exchange of nitrate in deep soils restrict nutrient movement. Despite resistance to biogeochemical change, streams in soya bean watersheds have higher temperatures caused by impoundments and reduction of bordering riparian forest. In larger rivers, increased water flow, current velocities and sediment flux following deforestation can reshape stream morphology, suggesting that cumulative impacts of deforestation in small watersheds will occur at larger scales. KW - soya beans KW - watersheds KW - nitrogen KW - phosphorus KW - soil Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0425 SN - 0962-8436 SN - 1471-2970 VL - 368 IS - 1619 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Neill, Christopher A1 - Jankowski, KathiJo A1 - Brando, Paulo M. A1 - Coe, Michael T. A1 - Deegan, Linda A. A1 - Macedo, Marcia N. A1 - Riskin, Shelby H. A1 - Porder, Stephen A1 - Elsenbeer, Helmut A1 - Krusche, Alex V. T1 - Surprisingly Modest Water Quality Impacts From Expansion and Intensification of Large-Sscale Commercial Agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon-Cerrado Region JF - Tropical conservation science N2 - Large-scale commercial cropping of soybeans expanded in the tropical Amazon and Cerrado biomes of Brazil after 1990. More recently, cropping intensified from single-cropping of soybeans to double-cropping of soybeans with corn or cotton. Cropland expansion and intensification, and the accompanying use of mineral fertilizers, raise concerns about whether nutrient runoff and impacts to surface waters will be similar to those experienced in commercial cropland regions at temperate latitudes. We quantified water infiltration through soils, water yield, and streamwater chemistry in watersheds draining native tropical forest and single-and double-cropped areas on the level, deep, highly weathered soils where cropland expansion and intensification typically occurs. Although water yield increased four-fold from croplands, streamwater chemistry remained largely unchanged. Soil characteristics exerted important control over the movement of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) into streams. High soil infiltration rates prevented surface erosion and movement of particulate P, while P fixation in surface soils restricted P movement to deeper soil layers. Nitrogen retention in deep soils, likely by anion exchange, also appeared to limit N leaching and export in streamwater from both single-and double-cropped watersheds that received nitrogen fertilizer. These mechanisms led to lower streamwater P and N concentrations and lower watershed N and P export than would be expected, based on studies from temperate croplands with similar cropping and fertilizer application practices. KW - water KW - quality KW - agriculture KW - intensification KW - impact Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1940082917720669 SN - 1940-0829 VL - 10 PB - Sage Publ. CY - Thousand Oaks ER -