RESEARCHARTICLE

Amazon rivers as sources of moisture in tropical areas, case

study Atacapi, Tena-Ecuador
Quezada William | Luna Kevin | Pullopaxi G. |

aWater and Earth Sciences, Ikiam Amazon Abstract

Regional University, Tena, Ecuador
Correspondence
Quezada William, Ayala Shantall and Mier Tania, a
Water and Earth Sciences, Ikiam Amazon Regional
University, Tena, Ecuador Email:
William.quezada@est.ikiam.edu.ec
Genesis.pullopaxi@est.ikiam.edu.ec
Kevin.luna@est.ikiam.edu.ec
Humidity plays a critical role in the Amazon. It depends on its adequate supply during
the dry season, either in the form of precipitation or stored in the soil. Humidity is
related to the amount of vegetation, the temperature (T), and the amount of solar
radiation (SR), favoring the evaporation of water in areas where vegetation and water
bodies are larger. The present work seeks to understand if the relative humidity RH
varies longitudinally as a result of the presence of a water body in the town of Atacapi,
at km 8 via Muyuna. For this, the evaluation of dependent variables is proposed: HR,
temperature, and the categorical independent variable: distance to the center of the
river. The TUKEY-HSD test for HR data taken in the morning shows off that the HR is
declining with respect to the distance to the center of the river. That is, as we move
away from the water body, the RH reduces. This effect can be seen in a pronounced
way in the morning, in non-vegetated areas. We concluded that: there is a direct effect
of the distance to the center of the river on the HR. This relationship is inversely
proportional, the greater the distance, the lower the HR; the effect is more noticeable
in the morning than in the afternoon; the change in HR due (inversely proportional) to
the distance to the center of the river is canceled after 6pm due to the absence of solar
radiation.

KEYWORDS
HR, Temperature, humidity, amazon, river, Tena.

1 | INTRODUCTION
Humidity is a property that describes the water vapor content
present in a gas, it can be expressed in terms of several magnitudes
(Martines, 2007). The atmosphere contains water vapor in very
variable amounts, so it is usually very dry or sometimes embedded on
surfaces. This event is related to the thermodynamics of the
atmosphere and although the amounts of vapor are scarce, barely
reaching 3% in the more extreme cases, they are of great importance
for the development of life on earth (Ledesma Jimeno, 2011).
Humidity is related to the amount of vegetation, the temperature
(T), and the amount of solar radiation (SR), favoring the evaporation
of water in areas where vegetation and water bodies are larger. Water
vapor serves as a connection between reserves such as oceans, rivers,
soils, etc., through transport carried out by humidity (Rendón Hurtado,
2021). The humidity in tropical zones is given by the types of climates: type
A, specifically to the groups AF (jungle), AM (rain forests with monsoon
characteristics), and AH (tropical high-altitude forest). The AF subgroup
belongs to the humid tropical forest, this zone is extensive with a terrain of
high forest cover in the northern zone of South America. In the interior of
Africa, it is located in the narrow strip on the equator line. In the eastern
boundaries, it occurs in Thailand, Malacca, Borneo, etc., and in the same
way in Mindanao and Nueva Guinea (Ledesma Jimeno, 2011).
Humidity plays a critical role in the Amazon. It depends on its adequate
supply during the dry season, either in the form of precipitation or stored
in the soil (Yaguache, 2022). Humidity also influences the energy efficiency
provided by the hydrographic basin, a phenomenon related to the amount
of precipitation and renewable energy that can be obtained from it. The
amount of humidity detected can contribute high levels of water to the
different processes that encourage the production of rain. In some Latin
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American countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil,
which represents 45% of the electricity in Latin America comes from
sources hydroelectric, almost three times more than the world
average (Zumalacarregui et al., 2016).
Moisture transport is the main contributor of water in different
areas, associated with the exchange of water vapor and wind mobility.
When the sun heats the bodies of water, they rise by evaporation into
the atmosphere to create the so-called rivers of heaven or accumulate
in large clouds, which fall into the lithosphere (Sánchez Ortega, 2021).
The present work seeks to understand if the relative humidity RH
in tropical zones varies longitudinally as a result of the presence of a
water body. For this, the evaluation of dependent variables is
proposed: HR, temperature, and the categorical independent variable:
distance to the center of the river. The monitoring in a non-vegetated
area allows identifying only the effect that the distance to the river has
on the HR, thus excluding the effects that the vegetation could have.
2 | MATERIALS AND METHODS
The location map shows the town of Atacapi, at km 8 via Muyuna.
The study area was defined downstream of the town's pedestrian
Base map: Establishment of sampling point, own elaboration.
bridge, on a clear surface of vegetation near the river. The map shows
PEDZISAI ET AL .
the data collection points at different distances from the body of water.
Considerations:
The area was chosen after having tried 3 other sites. The first located
on the Pashimbi River, to the west of the URAI premises. This area has a
river surrounded by dense, high-altitude forest whose canopy transpires a
large amount of moisture, interfering with the measurements and
neutralizing the effect of the distance to the river. Then it was tested
upstream of the Pashimbi, on the bridge located near Building A of the
URAI. The area had a small area cleared of vegetation; however, it was
surrounded by dense high-altitude forest. This generated a similar effect to
the first site. Subsequently, the water conditions in the Tena River were
evaluated, on the entrance bridge that connects Atacapi with the URAI. The
area had an area with less forest density. Despite this, no notorious effect
of the river on humidity could be appreciated.
Finally, the conditions of HR, T in the town of Atacapi on the right side
of the Tena River, were evaluated. Upstream of the zone there is a non-
vegetated area, preventing this variable from interfering with the
longitudinal gradient. Subsequently, the sensitivity of the dependent
variables (HR, T) with respect to the independent (distance to the river) was
evaluated.
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Methods:
For the present study, 5 strategic points have been located for the
measurement of RH and T parameters, distributed ascendingly in a
longitudinal gradient. This starts in the center of the river, then to the
shore, followed by 3 points at similar distances, 0, 1, 5, 10 and 15
meters respectively.
The URAI weather station was established as a control point,
which was out of service due to maintenance and does not allow data
extraction. The treatments were considered to take data at distances
of (0, 1, 5, 10, 15) meters from the river. The distance to the center of
the river was considered as the independent variable and the variables
of RH and temperature as dependent variables.
Data collection lasted 4 days. Data were taken each day in the
morning, afternoon and night, between 9am, 1pm and 6pm
respectively. Data was taken every 4 minutes for 20 minutes (5 data).
That was made three times/day, during the 4 days. This was repeated
for each sampling point.
For statistical significance, it will be compared all the variables and
how they change when the distance moves away from the center of
the river. To say whether the pattern is significant or not, it will be
carried out a TUKEY HSD test from an ANOVA analysis, considering
relevant just the values with p < 0.05.
3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Results:
Figure 1 shows the changes in HR with respect to the distance to
the center of the river at different times of the day. Figure 1 A), B) show
the existence of a certain pattern of RH reduction as the sensor moves
away from the center of the river. For the case of the morning, the HR
oscillates between 80-55%. In the afternoon, the HR oscillates
between 55-30%. At night the pattern disappears, with an apparent
stable HR.
Figure 2 shows the changes in temperature (T) with respect to the
distance to the river at different times of the day. The inverse pattern
to that seen in figure 1 is observed. In the same way, it is observed that
at night the pattern disappears, with an apparently constant T along
the longitudinal section.
Figure 3 shows the HR distributions at different longitudes with
respect to the center of the river. Since only the measurements in the
morning and afternoon showed a certain pattern, an ANOVA test and
a TUKEY-HSD test were performed to corroborate the existence of
statistically significant differences between the HR means between
the different monitoring sites.
3.2 Discusion:
Figure 1 showed how in the morning (9am) and in the afternoon
(13:30 pm) both the HR and the T change with respect to the distance
to the center of the river. For both cases, the observed pattern is just
as expected. In contrast, the night (6pm) shows a different behavior.
Both HR and T stabilize and become nearly constant along the
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longitudinal gradient. This occurs because after 6pm, solar radiation (SR)
stops falling at an effective angle that favors evaporation, limiting the
transport of moisture from the river to the sampling site. Since the HR is
related to the amount of vegetation, the T and SR (Rendón Hurtado, 2021),
the reduction of humidity for its transport causes the HR and T gradients to
be eliminated.
It has also been observed that there is a higher HR in the morning and
night compared to the afternoon. This occurs as a product of the change in
the mixing rate. (Ritter, 2021), since the higher T requires a greater amount
of water to saturate a volume of air, thus the RH falls as T increases.
According to figure 3 A), there is an apparent pattern of HR decrease
with respect to the distance to the center of the river. At first sight, it can
be seen that the RH distributions fall as the sensors move away from the
water body. This effect is more marked in the morning than in the rest of
the day. To verify if there are statistically significant differences in HR at
different distances, a statistical analysis was carried out.
The TUKEY-HSD test for HR data taken in the morning shows that there
are significant differences between the distance 0-5m, 0-10m, 1-10m, 0-
15m. In other words, effectively the HR is declining with respect to the
distance to the center of the river. That is, as we move away from the water
body, the RH reduces. This effect can be seen in a pronounced way in the
morning, in non-vegetated areas.
In contrast, the last sampling point in the morning reverses the pattern
of decrease. Likewise, for the last two sampling points in the afternoon, a
similar behavior was observed. Apparently, the parabolic behavior of T
along the longitudinal gradient was having an effect on the HR distribution.
However, this fact is outside our study purpose, but it must be deeply
investigated to give an answer to this unusual behavior of both HR, T.
4 | CONCLUSION
-There is a direct effect of the distance to the center of the river on the HR.
This relationship is inversely proportional, the greater the distance, the
lower the HR.
-The effect is more noticeable in the morning than in the afternoon.
-The change in HR inversely proportional to the distance to the center of
the river is canceled after 6pm due to the absence of solar radiation.
-Bodies of water are not the only agents that control the RH of an area.
Changes in T, vegetation cover, SR, wind speed and direction are variables
that are also involved in these processes and should be studied separately
and then join their effects to understand how the HR of a particular region
is modulated.
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6 | SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

LINK TO THE DATA ARCHIVE, GEOGRAPICAL DESCRIPTION AND

DATA MATRIX:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rupRxRw2PdilAawHxwpYl
cHgMz0LfgtUhYBPJclpXg0/edit?usp=sharing