Drought sensitivity of the Amazon rainforest.
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 total biomass carbon impact of 1.2 to 1.6 petagrams (1.2 x 10(15) to 1.6 x 10(15) grams). Amazon forests therefore appear vulnerable to increasing moisture stress, with the potential for large carbon losses to exert feedback on climate change.
Phillips
Oliver L
OL
Ecology and Global Change, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. o.phillips@leeds.ac.uk
Aragão
Luiz E O C
LE
Lewis
Simon L
SL
Fisher
Joshua B
JB
Lloyd
Jon
J
López-González
Gabriela
G
Malhi
Yadvinder
Y
Monteagudo
Abel
A
Peacock
Julie
J
Quesada
Carlos A
CA
van der Heijden
Geertje
G
Almeida
Samuel
S
Amaral
Iêda
I
Arroyo
Luzmila
L
Aymard
Gerardo
G
Baker
Tim R
TR
Bánki
Olaf
O
Blanc
Lilian
L
Bonal
Damien
D
Brando
Paulo
P
Chave
Jerome
J
de Oliveira
Atila Cristina Alves
AC
Cardozo
Nallaret Dávila
ND
Czimczik
Claudia I
CI
Feldpausch
Ted R
TR
Freitas
Maria Aparecida
MA
Gloor
Emanuel
E
Higuchi
Niro
N
Jiménez
Eliana
E
Lloyd
Gareth
G
Meir
Patrick
P
Mendoza
Casimiro
C
Morel
Alexandra
A
Neill
David A
DA
Nepstad
Daniel
D
Patiño
Sandra
S
Peñuela
Maria Cristina
MC
Prieto
Adriana
A
Ramírez
Fredy
F
Schwarz
Michael
M
Silva
Javier
J
Silveira
Marcos
M
Thomas
Anne Sota
AS
Steege
Hans Ter
HT
Stropp
Juliana
J
Vásquez
Rodolfo
R
Zelazowski
Przemyslaw
P
Alvarez Dávila
Esteban
E
Andelman
Sandy
S
Andrade
Ana
A
Chao
Kuo-Jung
KJ
Erwin
Terry
T
Di Fiore
Anthony
A
Honorio C
Eurídice
E
Keeling
Helen
H
Killeen
Tim J
TJ
Laurance
William F
WF
Peña Cruz
Antonio
A
Pitman
Nigel C A
NC
Núñez Vargas
Percy
P
Ramírez-Angulo
Hirma
H
Rudas
Agustín
A
Salamão
Rafael
R
Silva
Natalino
N
Terborgh
John
J
Torres-Lezama
Armando
A
D001272:Atmosphere; D018533:Biomass; D001938:Brazil; D002244:Carbon; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002980:Climate; D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D013020:South America; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development; D014329:Tropical Climate
D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002244:Carbon