Carbon and the fate of the Amazon
This publication shows that carbon prices exceeding US$ 20 per ton of CO2 captured by the natural regeneration of deforested areas in the Amazon would be truly transformative for the region’s landscape.
Amazon
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Observed change of the standardized precipitation index, its potential cause and implications to future climate change in Amazon
Observations show that the standard precipitation index (SPI ) over the southern Amazon region decreased in the period of 1970
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Water recycling by Amazonian vegetation: coupled versus uncoupled vegetationclimate interactions
To demonstrate the relationship between Amazonian vegetation and surface water dynamics, specifically, the recycling of water via evapotranspiration (ET), we compare two general circulation model experiments; one that couples the IS92a scenario of future CO2 emissions to a land-surface scheme with dynamic vegetation (coupled) and the other to fixed vegetation (uncoupled).
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The fate of assimilated carbon during drought: impacts on respiration in Amazon rainforests
Interannual variations in CO2 exchange across Amazonia, as deduced from atmospheric inversions, correlate with El Nino occurrence. They are thought to result from changes in net ecosystemexchange and fire incidence that are both related to drought intensity. Alterations to net ecosystemproduction (NEP) are caused by changes in gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystemrespiration (Reco ).
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Drought effects on litterfall, wood production and belowground carbon cycling in an Amazon forest
The Amazon Basin experiences severe droughts that may become more common in the future. Little is known of the effects of such droughts on Amazon forest productivity and carbon allocation. We tested the prediction that severe drought decreases litterfall and wood production but potentially has multiple cancelling effects on belowground production within a 7-year partial throughfall exclusion experiment. We simulated an approximately 35
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Impact of a drier EarlyMid-Holocene climate upon Amazonian forests
This paper uses a palaeoecological approach to examine the impact of drier climatic conditions of the Early
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The changing Amazon forest
Long-term monitoring of distributed, multiple plots is the key to quantify macroecological patterns and changes. Here we examine the evidence for concerted changes in the structure, dynamics and composition of old-growth Amazonian forests in the late twentieth century. In the 1980s and 1990s, mature forests gained biomass and underwent accelerated growth and dynamics, all consistent with a widespread, long-acting stimulation of growth. Because growth on average exceeded mortality, intact Amazonian forests have been a carbon sink.
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Human dimensions of climate change: the vulnerability of small farmers in the Amazon
This paper argues for a twofold perspective on human adaptation to climate change in the Amazon. First, we need to understand the processes that mediate perceptions of environmental change and the behavioural responses at the levels of the individual and the local population. Second, we should take into account the process of production and dissemination of global and national climate information and models to regional and local populations, especially small farmers.
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Fire, climate change and biodiversity in Amazonia: a Late-Holocene perspective
Fire is an important and arguably unnatural component of many wet Amazonian and Andean forest systems. Soil charcoal has been used to infer widespread human use of landscapes prior to European Conquest. An analysis of Amazonian soil carbon records reveals that the records have distinct spatial and temporal patterns, suggesting that either fires were only set in moderately seasonal areas of Amazonia or that strongly seasonal and aseasonal areas are undersampled.
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Fire-mediated dieback and compositional cascade in an Amazonian forest
The only fully coupled land
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Hydro-climatic and ecological behaviour of the drought of Amazonia in 2005
In 2005, southwestern Amazonia experienced the effects of an intense drought that affected life and biodiversity. Several major tributaries as well as parts of the main river itself contained only a fraction of their normal volumes of water, and lakes were drying up. Analyses of climatic and hydrological records in Amazonia suggest a broad consensus that the 2005 drought was linked not to El Nin