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Over the last several years researchers have said that the Amazon is on the verge of transforming from a crucial storehouse for heat-trapping gasses to a source of them, a dangerous shift that could destabilize the atmosphere of the planet.
Now, after years of painstaking and inventive research, they have definitively measured that shift.
In a study published Wednesday in Nature, a team of researchers led by scientists from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, reported results from measuring carbon concentrations in columns of air above the Amazon. They found that the massive continental-size swath of tropical forest is releasing more carbon dioxide than it accumulates or stores, thanks to deforestation and fires.
“There is no doubt that the Amazon is a source,” said Luciana Gatti, the lead author of the study.
Journal Reference:
Luciana V. Gatti, Luana S. Basso, John B. Miller, et al. Amazonia as a carbon source linked to deforestation and climate change, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03629-6)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bradley13 on Sunday July 18 2021, @05:17PM (1 child)
Essentially all of the organic material in a rainforest is always in use. There is no build-up in the soil - that's a specialty of temperate forests. That's why the slash-and-burn farmers always have to move on: the soil is fundamentally pretty poor.
Slash-and-burn releases CO2, the rainforest is neutral, so the overall negative balance isn't really a surprise.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fakefuck39 on Monday July 19 2021, @12:48AM
Umm no. Naturally the forest has been expanding, meaning the CO2 is stored in new trees. Now the forest is shrinking, as more burns than grows, so that CO2 is released back.
The article is also misleading. The deforested parts are what are releasing the CO2. If you look at the footprint of just where the trees are, it's not releasing CO2.
Global warming is another reason. Photosynthesis for those trees works best under 28C, after which it falls off exponentially. The temp is higher, so the method of producing oxygen is no longer as effective. This is called the CO2 fertilization effect.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-worlds-intact-tropical-forests-reached-peak-carbon-uptake-in-1990s [carbonbrief.org]
Until very recently, where the daily temp has climbed above the CO2 fertilization threshold, the forest soaked up Double the CO2 it released.
https://www.wri.org/insights/forests-absorb-twice-much-carbon-they-emit-each-year [wri.org]
One of the reasons si that what you said is false. Forests store biomass below ground. Here's a chart of just how much.
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/601/31550389533_6de26fee78_b.jpg [staticflickr.com]
>slash-and-burn farmers always have to move on
...while farming uses up all the nutrients in the soil, and undisturbed forest does not. It grows the topsoil, and keeps storing carbon below ground. What you did here is a strawman, saying the forest is a farm. It's not, and you're completely wrong.