The Amazon River and its associated tropical rainforest represent one of the words most important freshwater systems. The Amazon responsible for globally important water, nutrient and energy fluxes. Together the river and rainforest account for 030320% of global freshwater, 10% of global species diversity and store roughly 150Pg of carbon. Alterations to the Amazon's landscape including deforestation, agricultural expansion, infrastructure development, increased forest fire occurrence and changing precipitation patterns threaten the stability of the system. In this thesis, I work toward a better understanding how water resources are responding to changes in climate and land cover across the Amazon Basin. In Chapter 1, I investigate how deforestation and climate change have altered the water balance in the Amazon Basin. Specifically, I used statistical analyses to quantify changes in streamflow, groundwater storage, and evapotranspiration, and link these the observed changes in land cover and precipitation. In Chapter 2, I focus on how groundwater dynamics are altered by deforestation and conversation to agriculture. To address these question, I developed a groundwater model for a site representative of the heavily defrosted southern headwaters of the Amazon Basin. Together, these efforts reveal how deforestation and climate change are effecting water resources in the Amazon. Better understanding these effects will be crucial to developing policy that balances resource development and environmental impact in this critically important region.
Read
