General Circulation and Earth System Models are the most advanced tools for investigating climate responses to future scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions, playing the role of projecting the climate throughout the century. Nevertheless, climate projections are model-dependent and may show systematic biases, requiring a bias correction for any further application. Here, we provide a dataset based on an ensemble of 19 bias-corrected CMIP6 climate models projections for the Brazilian territory based on the SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios. We used the Quantile Delta Mapping approach to bias-correct daily time-series of precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, solar net radiation, near-surface wind speed, and relative humidity. The bias-corrected dataset is available for both historical (1980–2013) and future (2015–2100) simulations at a 0.25° × 0.25° spatial resolution. Besides the gridded product, we provide area-averaged projections for 735 catchments included in the Catchments Attributes for Brazil (CABra) dataset. The dataset provides important variables commonly used in environmental and hydroclimatological studies, paving the way for the development of high-quality research on climate change impacts in Brazil.

Water crises have risen over the past decade. In the Brazilian context, extreme events have intensified over the country, undermining water systems in regions that already face water shortages. Although previous studies have focussed on individual regions of Brazil, an overview of the entire country will contribute to developing a national action plan for mitigating water inequalities. Therefore, we reviewed and analysed water security in Brazil, presenting a diagnosis focussed on the peculiarities of each geographic region and hydrographic area. One of the biggest threats is the slow pace towards a robust policy for strengthening national water security. As shown here, water security depends on several variables such as availability, quality, and external factors such as climate forcing and anthropogenic pressure. Therefore, water governance needs to integrate human needs with ecosystem functioning, considering climate uncertainties to move towards better water resources planning.

Integrating agricultural land uses is a suitable alternative for fostering economic development and improving food security. However, the effects of long-term integrated systems on soil erosion and water infiltration are still poorly understood. Here, we investigate the influence of different agricultural land uses on soil erosion and water infiltration in an Oxisol site located in the Brazilian Cerrado region. The experimental area consisted of continuous grazing under variable stocking rates with regular fertilization (CG-RF), continuous cropping under no-till (CC-NT) and no-till with 4-year subsoiling (CC-SS), rotation of one year cropping and three years livestock in the livestock phase (C1-L3), rotation of four years cropping and four years livestock in the cropping phase (CL-4C) and in the livestock phase (CL-4L), and integrated crop-livestock-forestry in the cropping phase (CLF-C) and in the livestock phase (CLF-L). To evaluate water infiltration and soil loss, we used a rainfall simulator with a constant rainfall intensity of 74.9 ± 3.6 mm h⁻¹ in plots of 0.7 m². We carried out 72 rainfall simulations comprising four repetitions in each treatment under vegetation and bare soil. Stable infiltration rate (SIR) ranged from 45.9 to 74.8 mm h⁻¹ and 19.4 to 70.8 mm h⁻¹ under vegetation covers and bare soil, respectively. Our findings indicated that SIR values under CLF-C were 60% greater than under CG-RF. We also found that soil loss rates under CLF-C were 50% smaller than under CG-RF. The crop–livestock rotation period that presented better results of SIR and soil loss was one year of cropping and three years of livestock (C1-L3). Overall, we noted that SIR and soil loss values under CLF-C are similar to the Cerrado native vegetation. Therefore, our study reveals the opportunity to increase agricultural production, improve food supply, and reduce soil erosion with adequate soil and agricultural management.