An Artificial Landscape-Scale Fishery in the Bolivian Amazon
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
letters to nature 0.10±0.18 have been suggested for dense coniferous forest4,5; this 13. Schimel, D. et al.inClimate Change 1995. The Science of Climate Change Ch. 2 (eds Houghton, J. T. would increase the EESF by approximately 25 t C ha-1 in the most et al.) 65±131 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1995). 14. Edwards, J. M. & Slingo, A. Studies with a ¯exible new radiation code. I: Choosing a con®guration for snow-covered regions. a large-scale model. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 122, 689±720 (1996). Here I have considered forestation under present-day conditions, 15. Pope, V. D., Gallani, M. L., Rowntree, P. R. & Stratton, R. A. The impact of new physical parametrizations in the Hadley Centre climate model - HadAM3. Clim. Dyn. 16, 123±146 (2000). but the effects of future CO2 rise and climate change are likely to 16. Hansen, J. E. et al. Ef®cient three dimensional global models for climate studies, Models I and II. Mon. affect the magnitude of both radiative forcing terms, due to Weath. Rev. 111, 609±662 (1983). dependencies on time-varying quantities such as the atmospheric 17. Wilson, M. F. & Henderson-Sellers, A. A global archive of land cover and soils data for use in general CO2 concentration, snow extent and vegetation structure and circulation climate models. J. Climatol. 5, 119±143 (1985). 18. Woodward, F. I., Smith, T. M. & Emanuel, W. R. A global land primary productivity and lea®ness. As the atmospheric CO2 concentration increases, CO2 22 phytogeography model. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 9, 471±490 (1995). fertilization is likely to increase carbon uptake so the magnitude of 19. Myhre, G., Highwood, E. J., Shine, K. P. & Stordal, F. New estimates of radiative forcing due to well the negative sequestration forcing should therefore increase, mixed greenhouse gases. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 2715±2718 (1998). although associated climate changes may exert additional positive 20. Keeling, C. D. & Whorf, T. P. Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations - Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, 1958- or negative effects on sequestration. Warmer temperatures may 1997 (NDP-001, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1998). 21. Willmott, C. J., Rowe, C. M. & Mintz, Y. Climatology of the terrestrial seasonal water cycle. J. Climatol. 23 reduce the extent of snow cover , but the leaf area index (LAI) of 5, 589±606 (1985). potential vegetation may increase24,25, so the albedo forcing could 22. Cao, M. & Woodward, F. I. Dynamic responses of terrestrial ecosystem carbon cycling to global either increase or decrease. The effect of vegetation on surface climate change. Nature 393, 249±252 (1998). 23. Essery, R. Seasonal snow cover and climate change in the Hadley Centre GCM. Ann. Glaciol. 25, 362± albedo is not necessarily proportional to biomass, so the net 366 (1997). contribution to radiative forcing may not evolve linearly through- 24. Betts, R. A., Cox, P. M., Lee, S. E. & Woodward, F. I. Contrasting physiological and structural out a forest's development; albedo depends on canopy density and vegetation feedbacks in climate change simulations. Nature 387, 796±799 (1997). 25. Levis, S., Foley, J. A. & Pollard, D. Potential high-latitude vegetation feedbacks on CO -induced architecture, and can become low rapidly, whereas carbon seques- 2 climate change. Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 747±750 (1999). tration depends largely on woody biomass which is more gradually 26. Kondratyev, K. Y., Korzov, V. I., Mukhenberg, V. V. & Dyachenko, L. N. in Land Surface Processes in accumulated. Other contributions to forcing may also require Atmospheric General Circulation Models (ed. Eagleson, P. S.) 463±514 (Cambridge Univ. Press, consideration; for example, the longwave radiation budget could Cambridge, 1982). be affected by modi®ed surface emissivity25, although the sign of 27. Gedney, N. & Valdes, P. J. The effect of Amazonian deforestation on the northern hemisphere circulation and climate. Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 3053±3056 (2000). 25,26 such changes is uncertain . 28. Cox, P.M., Betts, R. A., Jones, C. D., Spall, S. A. & Totterdell, I. J. Acceleration of global warming due to The work I report here has focused on perturbations to the Earth's carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model. Nature 408, 184±187 (2000). radiation budget, which is the fundamental driver of the climate 29. Cox, P.M. et al. The impact of new land surface physics on the GCM simulation of climate and climate sensitivity. Clim. Dyn. 15, 183±203 (1999). system. Forestation may also in¯uence the climate by modifying the 30. Posey, J. W. & Clapp, P. F. Global distribution of normal surface albedo. Geo®s. Int. 4, 333±348 ¯uxes of heat, moisture and momentum between the land surface (1964). and atmosphere. Whereas boreal forests warm their local climate through reduced albedo, tropical forests tend to cool and moisten Acknowledgements their local climates by greatly enhancing evaporation. Both may also I thank S.E. Lee and F.I. Woodward for providing data from the Shef®eld University in¯uence distant regional climates via the atmospheric circu- vegetation model, and P.M. Cox, J.M. Edwards, R.L.H. Essery, W.J. Ingram, G.J. Jenkins, lation9,27. Assessment of the effect of forestation on climate at a J.E. Lovelock, S. Nilsson, I.C. Prentice, P.R. Rowntree, K.P. Shine, P.J. Valdes and D.A. given time in the future will require simulations with a climate Warrilow for advice, comments and discussion. This work forms part of the Climate 25,28 Prediction Programme of the UK Department of the Environment, Transport and the model that incorporates vegetation dynamics and other atmos- Regions. pheric, terrestrial and oceanic components of the carbon cycle28,in which forest growth occurs at appropriate rates in relation to Correspondence should be addressed to the author (e-mail: [email protected]). changes in atmospheric CO2 and snow cover. Nevertheless, my results suggest that high-latitude forestation would exert a positive radiative forcing through reduced albedo that in many places could outweigh the negative forcing through carbon sequestration. If ................................................................. afforestation and reforestation are required to decrease radiative forcing rather than simply to reduce net CO2 emissions, then An arti®cial landscape-scale ®shery changes in surface albedo must also be considered. M in the Bolivian Amazon Received 10 July; accepted 27 September 2000. 1. UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Art. 3.3 Clark L. Erickson (UNEP/INC/98/2, Information Unit for Conventions, UNEP,Geneva, 1998) <http://www.unfccc.int/ resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf>. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 33rd and Spruce Streets, 2. UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Art. 2 (UNEP/IUC/99/2, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6398, USA Information Unit for Conventions, UNEP, Geneva, 1999); <http://www.unfccc.int/resource/ convkp.html>. .............................................................................................................................................. 3. Robinson, D. A. & Kukla, G. Albedo of a dissipating snow cover. J. Climatol. Appl. Meteorol. 23, 1626± Historical ecologists working in the Neotropics argue that the 1634 (1984). present natural environment is an historical product of human 4. Harding, R. J. & Pomeroy, J. W. The energy balance of the winter boreal landscape. J. Clim. 9, 2778± 2787 (1996). intentionality and ingenuity, a creation that is imposed, built, 5. Sharratt, B. S. Radiative exchange, near-surface temperature and soil water of forest and cropland in managed and maintained by the collective multigenerational interior Alaska. Agric. Forest Meteorol. 89, 269±280 (1998). knowledge and experience of Native Americans1,2. In the past 6. Thomas, G. & Rowntree, P.R. The boreal forests and climate. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 118, 469±497 (1992). 12,000 years, indigenous peoples transformed the environment, 7. Bonan, G. B., Pollard, D. & Thompson, S. L. Effects of boreal forest vegetation on global climate. Nature 359, 716±718 (1992). creating what we now recognize as the rich ecological mosaic of 8. Bonan, G. B., Chapin, F. S. & Thompson, S. L. Boreal forest and tundra ecosystems as components of the Neotropics3±6. The prehispanic savanna peoples of the Boliv- the climate system. Clim. Change 29, 145±167 (1995). ian Amazon built an anthropogenic landscape through the con- 9. Douville, H. & Royer, J. F. In¯uence of the temperate and boreal forests on the Northern Hemisphere climate in the MeÂteÂo-France climate model. Clim. Dyn. 13, 57±74 (1997). struction of raised ®elds, large settlement mounds, and earthen 7,8 10. Nabuurs, G. J. & Mohren, G. M. J. Modelling analysis of potential carbon sequestration in selected causeways . I have studied a complex arti®cial network of forest types. Can. J. Forest Res. 25, 1157±1172 (1995). hydraulic earthworks covering 525 km2 in the Baures region of 11. Nilsson, S. & Schopfhauser, W. The carbon sequestration potential of a global reforestation program. Bolivia. Here I identify a particular form of earthwork, the zigzag Clim. Change 30, 267±293 (1995). 12. Watson, R. T. et al. (eds) Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, structure, as a ®sh weir, on the basis of form, orientation, location, 2000). association with other hydraulic works and ethnographic analogy. 190 © 2000 Macmillan Magazines Ltd NATURE | VOL 408 | 9 NOVEMBER 2000 | www.nature.com letters to nature The native peoples used this technology to harvest suf®cient seasonally ¯ooded savanna. They are also more numerous, longer animal protein to sustain large and dense populations in a and more densely placed than ethnographic ®sh weirs. In addition savanna environment. to controlling and harvesting ®sh within the savanna, the weirs and The zigzag structure is a particular form of arti®cial earthwork, large causeways may have been used for water management. The found in the seasonally inundated savanna of Baures, Bolivia earthworks could have extended the period of inundation by (Province of IteÂnez, Department of the Beni) (Figs 1 and 2).