title: The Amazon basin in transition.
abstract: Agricultural expansion and climate variability have become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon basin. Recent studies have demonstrated considerable resilience of Amazonian forests to moderate annual drought, but they also show that interactions between deforestation, fire and drought potentially lead to losses of carbon storage and changes in regional precipitation patterns and river discharge. Although the basin-wide impacts of land use and drought may not yet surpass the magnitude of natural variability of hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles, there are some signs of a transition to a disturbance-dominated regime. These signs include changing energy and water cycles in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon basin.
authors.affiliation: The Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, Massachusetts 02540-1644, USA. edavidson@whrc.org
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.forename: Alessandro C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: de Araújo
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Artaxo
authors.forename: Jennifer K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Balch
authors.forename: I Foster
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Mercedes M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: C Bustamante
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Coe
authors.forename: Ruth S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: DeFries
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.forename: J William
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Munger
authors.forename: Wilfrid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: Britaldo S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Soares-Filho
authors.forename: Carlos M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Wofsy
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D057231:Climate Change; D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D005390:Fires; D016468:Forestry; D011891:Rain; D045483:Rivers; D012621:Seasons; D014197:Trees / Q000378:metabolism*