Impact of deforestation on regional surface temperatures and moisture in the Maya lowlands of Guatemala

Abstract

The Petén basin of Guatemala is a region in Mesoamerica experiencing extensive deforestation. Twelve 30 × 30 km2 forested, deforested and partially deforested habitats are selected to compare changes in surface temperature, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and soil moisture parameters derived from MODIS satellite data during the dry and wet seasons from 2000 to 2008. During the wet season surface temperatures, soil moisture, and NDVI values have similar values in forested and deforested regions. During the dry season, deforested regions tend to be 4-8°C warmer than nearby forested regions, along with significantly lower values of NDVI and soil moisture. From 2000 to 2008, the partially deforested regions became progressively warmer during the dry season, and both NDVI and soil moisture values approached those of the deforested regions. A supervised classification revealed that three partially deforested regions contained 17.7%, 12.9% and 13.4% forests in 2000, decreasing to 2.9%, 8.3% and 4.7%, respectively, in 2008. Overall, partially forested regions in the Petén region decreased in forest cover by 9.3% from 2000 to 2008, while there has been a 0.33% per year deforestation rate over the entire Petén basin. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.