Abstract
There is little information about the availability of water in the Cerrado biome, the main agricultural frontier in Brazil, especially about groundwater, and this has compromised the region’s economic and social development, as well as environmental sustainability. The reduction of rainfall in this region, indicated by numerous climate models, may reduce aquifer recharge and, consequently, groundwater availability and sustainable development of the Cerrado biome. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of global climate change on groundwater recharge in a Brazilian Savannah watershed. Rainfall and water table depth data were recorded between 2007 and 2015. Based on these data, equations were developed relating the average monthly depth of the water table with the accumulated average monthly rainfall. From these equations, monthly average recharges considering the future climate estimates made by climate models (Eta-HadGEM2-ES and Eta-MIROC5) and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (4.5 and 8.5) were calculated. In a pessimistic scenario (RCP 8.5), the average monthly groundwater recharge is decreasing in the beginning and in the end of the rainy season, indicating that there may be an increase in the dry season and, consequently, a reduction in water availability in the Cerrado biome region.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the data providers: the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA Cerrados) for providing the climatic data, water table depth, and soil parameters collected on Buriti Vermelho watershed; the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) for providing the climatic data collected on Brasília DF weather station (code 83377); and the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) for providing the daily data of high-resolution climate projections.
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This study was supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA Cerrados), the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), and the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and funded in part by the Federal District Research Support Foundation (FAP-DF) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES—Finance Code 001).
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Conception and design of the study: Arnaldo José Cambraia Neto and Lineu Neiva Rodrigues. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis: Arnaldo José Cambraia Neto and Daniel Althoff. Writing—original draft preparation: Arnaldo José Cambraia Neto. Writing—review and editing: Arnaldo José Cambraia Neto, Lineu Neiva Rodrigues, Demetrius David da Silva and Daniel Althoff.
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Cambraia Neto, A.J., Rodrigues, L.N., da Silva, D.D. et al. Impact of climate change on groundwater recharge in a Brazilian Savannah watershed. Theor Appl Climatol 143, 1425–1436 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03477-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03477-w