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| The impacts of the 2005 drought in the Amazon gave scientists a glimpse into the region’s future climate, in which a warming tropical North Atlantic may cause hotter and more intense dry seasons. In order to calculate the changes in carbon storage, the 68 scientists involved in the study examined more than 100 forest plots across the Amazon’s 600 million hectares, from Brazil to Equador to French Guiana. They used growth data from more than 100 000 trees, recorded over 30 years, and studied tree deaths as well as new trees. The results show that the 2005 drought sharply reversed decades of carbon absorption. Tree death rates accelerated where the drought was the harshest. “For years the Amazon forest has been helping to slow down carbon change. If the earth’s carbon sinks slow or go into reverse, carbon dioxide levels will rise even faster”, stresses Oliver Phillips. According to the scientists’ analyses, the Amazon drought has resulted in 5 billion extra tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The effect on the atmosphere is therefore equivalent to what results annually from deforestation for agricultural activities throughout the world. Visually, most of the forest appeared little affected, but records prove tree death rates accelerated. For the moment, this carbon is “on the ground”, in the form of dead trees not yet decomposed. It will take several decades before these trees decompose and for the carbon dioxide to return to the atmosphere. The Amazon region is so vast that even small ecological effects can have a large impact on the world carbon cycle. If there were to be repeated droughts in the Amazon, this would accelerate climate warming. ...............................................................................
* RAINFOR. The international Amazon Forest Inventory Network monitors Amazonian forests. The network emphasizes careful, on-the-ground research to assess the behaviour of the world’s most active carbon exchange system, and to better understand the impact of Amazonia on the global climate. RAINFOR also fosters the development of young scientists, botanists and field technicians. The participating institutions: the University of Leeds (UK), Oxford University (UK), Jardín Botánico de Missouri (Perú), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas na Amazonia (Brazil), Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (Brazil), Conservation International (USA), Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado (Bolivia), Missouri Botanical Garden (USA), Herbario Universitario (Portugal), Universidad Nacional Experimental de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora (Venezuela), Nationaal Herbarium Nederland (Netherlands), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (French Guiana, France), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (French Guiana, France), Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (Brazil), University of Florida (USA), Université Paul Sabatier (France), Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (Perú), University of California (USA), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (Brazil), Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Colombia), National Australia Bank (Australia), University of Edinburgh (UK), Manejo Forestal en las Tierras Tropicales de Bolivia (Bolivia), Jatun Sacha Foundation (Ecuador), Woods Hole Research Center (USA), Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (USA), Instituto Alexander von Humboldt (Colombia), University of Bayreuth (Germany), Universidade Federal do Acre (Brazil), Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Universidad del Tolima (Colombia), National Museum of Natural History (USA), New York University (USA), Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (Perú), Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution (Panamá), Centro de Investigación y Capacitación del Río de Los Amigos (Perú), Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco (Perú). Universidad de Los Andes (Venezuela), Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Colombia), Serviço Florestal Brasileiro (Brazil) Duke University (USA). www.rainfor.org The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. ...............................................................................
Further information: Amazonia. At about 6 million square kilometres, the Amazon forest covers an area 11 times as great as France and spans nine countries, of which by far the largest is Brazil. Much of Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, French Guiana, Guiana, and Suriname is still covered by Amazon forests. This region contains one fifth of all species on earth – including more than 10,000 tree species - one fifth of all carbon in the earth’s biomass, and is home to several million people. Water vapour from Amazonia nurtures agriculture further south, including the biofuel crops which now power millions of cars. Each year Amazon forests cycle 18 billion tons of carbon - more than twice as much carbon as the combined emissions of all fossil fuels burnt in the world. The 2005 Amazon drought. Throughout 2005 unusually high sea temperatures prevailed in the North Atlantic. These exceptionally warm waters also powered the most destructive hurricane season on record, which included Hurricane Katrina. In Amazonia, and especially its western and southern regions, the subsiding air from the Atlantic convection dried the forest, helping make the 2005 dry season the driest ever in many locations. ...............................................................................
- For an entertaining introduction to research conducted in the tropical forest of French Guiana: « Terre rouge » by Julie Blanchin and Laurent Sick, Editions Quae, 2007 An adventure among forest ecology researchers in the heart of the Amazonian forest. http://www.quae.com/livre/?GCOI=27380100594750 ...............................................................................
Reference: "Drought Sensitivity of the Amazon Rainforest" SCIENCE, 6 March 2009, vol 323, 1344-1347 Gabriela López-González,1 Yadvinder Malhi,2 Abel Monteagudo,3 Julie Peacock,1 Carlos A. Quesada,1,4 Geertje van der Heijden,1 Samuel Almeida,5 Iêda Amaral,4,6 Luzmila Arroyo,7,8 Gerardo Aymard,9 Tim R. Baker,1 Olaf Bánki,10 Lilian Blanc,11 Damien Bonal,12 Paulo Brando,13,14 Jerome Chave,15 Átila Cristina Alves de Oliveira,4 Nallaret Dávila Cardozo,16 Claudia I. Czimczik,17 Ted R. Feldpausch,1 Maria Aparecida Freitas,5 Emanuel Gloor,1 Niro Higuchi,18 Eliana Jiménez,19 Gareth Lloyd,20 Patrick Meir,21 Casimiro Mendoza,22 Alexandra Morel,2 David A. Neill,8,23 Daniel Nepstad,24,25 Sandra Patiño,1,11 Maria Cristina Peñuela,19 Adriana Prieto,26 Fredy Ramírez,16 Michael Schwarz,1,27 Javier Silva,2 Marcos Silveira,28 Anne Sota Thomas,29 Hans ter Steege,30 Juliana Stropp,30 Rodolfo Vásquez,3 Przemyslaw Zelazowski,2 Esteban Alvarez Dávila,31 Sandy Andelman,6 Ana Andrade,4 Kuo-Jung Chao,1 Terry Erwin,32 Anthony Di Fiore,33 Eurídice Honorio C.,34 Helen Keeling,1 Tim J. Killeen,7 William F. Laurance,4,35 Antonio Peña Cruz,3 Nigel C. A. Pitman,36 Percy Núñez Vargas,37 Hirma Ramírez-Angulo,38 Agustín Rudas,39 Rafael Salamão,5 Natalino Silva,40 John Terborgh,41 Armando Torres-Lezama38 1Ecology and Global Change, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. 2Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and Environment, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK. 3Jardín Botánico de Missouri, Oxapampa, Pasco, Peru. 4Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas na Amazônia, Av. Andre Araujo, 1753 CP 478, 69060-011 Manaus AM, Brasil. 5Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Av. Perimetral, 1901 Terra Firme, CEP: 66077-830 Belém PA, Brasil. 6Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM), Conservation International, 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500, Arlington, VA 22202, USA. 7Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, Casilla 2489, Av. Irala 565, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 8Missouri Botanical Garden, Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166, USA. 9Programa de Ciencias del Agro y del Mar, Herbario Universitario (PORT), Universidad Nacional Experimental de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, Mesa de Cavacas, Portuguesa 3350, Venezuela. 10Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, W.C. van Unnikgebouw, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, Netherlands. 11Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), UMR EcoFoG, Campus Agronomique, BP 709, 97387 Kourou Cedex, French Guiana. 12Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), UMR EcoFoG, Campus Agronomique, BP 709, 97387 Kourou Cedex, French Guiana. 13Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, Avenida Nazaré 669, CEP-66035, Belém PA, Brasil. 14Department of Botany and School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Florida, P.O. Box 118526, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA. 15Laboratoire EDB, Université Paul Sabatier, Bâtiment 4R3, 31062 Toulouse, France. 16Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana, Iquitos, Loreto, Perú. 17Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. 18Departamento de Silvicultura Tropical, Manejo Florestal, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Av. André Araújo, 2936 Petrópolis, Manaus AM, Brasil. 19Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Kilómetro 2 Via Tarapacá, Leticia, Amazonas, Colombia. 20National Australia Bank, UB2211, 800 Bourke Street, Docklands, VIC 3008, Australia. 21School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK. 22FOMABO (Manejo Forestal en las Tierras Tropicales de Bolivia), Sacta, Bolivia. 23Jatun Sacha Foundation, Casilla 17- 12-867, Avenida Rio Coca 1734, Quito, Ecuador. 24Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540, USA. 25Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, P.O. Box 29910, San Francisco, CA 94129, USA. 26Instituto Alexander von Humboldt, Claustro de San Agustín, Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia. 27Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany. 28Depto de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco AC 69910- 900, Brasil. 29Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt University of Berlin, Phillipstrasse 13, 10557 Berlin, Germany. 30Institute of Environmental Biology, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584 CA Utrecht, Netherlands. 31Facultad de Ingeniería Forestal, Universidad del Tolima, 546 Ibagué, Colombia. 32Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, MRC 187, P.O. Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013, USA. 33Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA. 34Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana, Av. José A. Quiñones km. 2.5, Apartado Postal 784, Loreto, Perú. 35Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution, Roosevelt Avenue, Tupper Building 401 Balboa, Ancón, Panamá, República de Panamá. 36Centro de Investigación y Capacitación del Río de Los Amigos, Madre de Dios, Perú. 37Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco, Av. de la Cultura 733, Cusco, Apartado Postal N° 921, Perú. 38INDEFOR, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela. 39Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Apartado 7495, Bogotá, Colombia. 40Serviço Florestal Brasileiro, SCEN Trecho 2, Ed. Sede do IBAMA Bloco H, 70.818-900 Brasília DF, Brasil. 41Center for Tropical Conservation, Duke University, Box 90381, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
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