Effects of landuse on net radiation and evapotranspiration in a protected area in the Northern Brazilian Pantanal

The Pantanal is the largest floodplain in the world and some non-flooded native areas are used for agriculture and livestock, which lead to a change in net radiation and evapotranspiration. A private protected area was created in 1999 by National Service of Commerce (SESC) to recover pasture areas into a native vegetation to protect biodiversity from Pantanal. Thus, our goal was to estimate net radiation and evapotranspiration before, during and after the creation of a protected area in the Northern Brazilian Pantanal. We used the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) and Landsat 5 TM images from 1984, 1989, 1999, 2008 and 2009 to estimate net radiation and evapotranspiration in the dry and wet seasons. The net radiation and evapotranspiration varied significantly between seasons and among years. The highest values of net radiation and evapotranspiration occurred in the wet season and they also increased from 1984 to 2009. These results highlight the seasonal pattern of the functioning of the Pantanal ecosystems due to seasonality of water availability and the increase in biomass after the creation of the protected area.