Abstract

The present research seeks to study environmental changes due to the advance of agribusiness on the territory of the Morro de São João Quilombola Community (CQMSJ), in the State of Tocantins, and its repercussions on surface temperatures. Large-scale commercial agriculture, in some cases, disregards in its practice the impacts it causes to traditional communities that live in the vicinity of large agricultural enterprises. The community realizes that it has experienced several environmental changes in its surroundings, due to the replacement of native vegetation by commercial crops, in the place that was previously part of its original territory. The methodological procedures were based on the use of geotechnologies for studies of themes related to the climate. For this, the terrestrial surface temperature (TST) was estimated over the territory that covers the CQMSJ in the dry winter season and in the rainy season in spring, through satellite images of the Landsat 7 and 8 series, in scenarios of observation of 1999/2000 and 2019/2020, referring to two moments: respectively, before and after the agricultural expansion in the study area. The results indicate that there was a surface temperature variation mainly associated with changes or alterations in land use and occupation. The increase in TST was more expressive in areas that are currently destined for agricultural production along the lines of agribusiness. The results point to probable consequences of intensive exploration of this traditional territory inserted in the Cerrado biome, especially regarding its microclimatic aspects, with possible implications for the life of a quilombola community.

Keywords:
traditional communities; agribusiness; surface temperature; geotechnology; microclimatic change