Drought Sensitivity of the Amazon Rainforest
University of Leeds · Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi · +20 more institutions
Abstract
Amazon forests are a key but poorly understood component of the global carbon cycle. If, as anticipated, they dry this century, they might accelerate climate change through carbon losses and changed surface energy balances. We used records from multiple long-term monitoring plots across Amazonia to assess forest responses to the intense 2005 drought, a possible analog of future events. Affected forest lost biomass, reversing a large long-term carbon sink, with the greatest impacts observed where the dry season was unusually intense. Relative to pre-2005 conditions, forest subjected to a 100-millimeter increase in water deficit lost 5.3 megagrams of aboveground biomass of carbon per hectare. The drought had a…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 84.79
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 35
Authors
66- OLOliver L. PhillipsCorresponding
University of Leeds, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, University of Oxford, Real Jardín Botánico
- LELuiz E. O. C. Aragão
University of Leeds, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, University of Oxford, Real Jardín Botánico
- SLSimon L. Lewis
University of Leeds, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, University of Oxford, Real Jardín Botánico
- JBJoshua B. Fisher
University of Leeds, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, University of Oxford, Real Jardín Botánico
- JLJon Lloyd
University of Leeds, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, University of Oxford, Real Jardín Botánico
Topics & keywords
- Amazon rainforest
- Environmental science
- Biomass (ecology)
- Carbon sink
- Carbon cycle
- Climate change
- Rainforest
- Dry season
Funding
- GAGordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- UFUniversidade Federal do Acre
- LTLeverhulme Trust
- RSRoyal Society
- SRSight Research UKAwards: NE/D01025X/1, NE/D010306/1
- UOUniversity of Leeds
- UNUniversidad Nacional de Colombia
- CNConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- INInstituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
- UOUniversity of California, Irvine
- NENatural Environment Research CouncilAwards: NE/B503384/1, NE/D01025X/1, NE/D010306/1, NE/D01025X/1