Land use transitions during the 2000s reduced contemporaneous evapotranspiration (ET) in the Xingu region by 35 km3 and warmed the land surface temperature (LST) by 0.3 °C.

Intensive cropland agriculture commonly increases streamwater solute concentrations and export from small watersheds. In recent decades, the lowland tropics have become the world’s largest and most important region of cropland expansion. Although the effects of...