Information on evapotranspiration (ET) has the potential to clarify drought’s effects on the water balance of natural ecosystems. Here, we use a 6-year dataset to present daily ET trends under different drought conditions in a seasonally dry Atlantic Forest in southeast Brazil as well as environmental and biophysical controls. Generalized linear models (GLMs) were applied to highlight the main controls on ET. Significant differences for ET were not found under different drought conditions (near normal, moderately dry, and severely dry). ET responded positively to net radiation (R_n), bulk surface (g_s), and aerodynamic (g_a) conductance. Drought severity and soil water storage (SWS) did not significantly affect ET. We attributed the regularization of ET to (i) the stability in the SWS observed in the study site (dystrophic red latosol); (ii) the tree species’ adaptations to cope with water stress; (iii) the alternation between droughts and near-normal conditions (which have increased the water in the system on an annual basis); and (iv) the monthly variations in water inputs within the hydrological years. Finally, our study sheds light on the ecosystem characteristics that may represent sources of resilience when facing the droughts predicted in climate change scenarios.

Globally, soil degradation by water erosion has become one of the major environmental problems in tropical regions, especially under the severe environmental conditions of the Andes. This study aims to detail the soil risk to degradation by water erosion in a water producer basin located in the Tropical Colombian Andes (Combeima River basin), applying the RUSLE model, discussing how to minimize the erosion processes under its environmental conditions (steep slope, climatic variability, soil classes and properties diversity, and alternative land uses). RUSLE was applied with the support of GIS to estimate current and potential risk to soil erosion in the basin, allowing the identification of areas more prone to degradation. It was found that currently, 50.5% of the basin’s area presents, on average, annual soil losses greater than 25 Mg ha-1 yr-1, meaning a very high risk to water erosion, with 30.4% showing a severe risk (> 100 Mg ha-1 yr-1). It was possible to conclude that the current land uses and soil management systems have not been effective in mitigating soil erosion, mainly when situated in steep topography. Therefore, it is necessary sustainable planning for the conservation of soil, water, organic carbon, plant nutrients, and other elements (not-nutrients) in this tropical Andes region.