Climate change: Amazon rainforest may be approaching tipping point

 
Amazon rainforests may be approaching the turning point of rainforest withering (the critical point at which rainforests turn into savanna), with more than 75% of this rainforest having reduced resilience since the early 2000s. A paper reporting observational evidence of signs is published in Nature Climate Change.

Tropical forests, such as the Amazon rainforest, play a very important role in climate control.However, over the last few decades, climate change and anthropogenic activities (such as deforestation) have put greater pressure on the Amazon rainforest.

Now, using remote sensing data from Earth observation satellites, Chris Boulton and colleagues have identified changes in the resilience of Amazon's rainforests (the ability of ecosystems to recover from disruptions) between 1991 and 2016. Boulton et al. Combined this information with data on forest coverage and climate data as a measure of the average state of the ecosystem.Analysis revealed that 75% of Amazon rainforests have been less resilient since the early 2000s, suggesting that the rainforest may be approaching a critical turning point.The decline in resilience was most pronounced in areas close to human activity and in areas with low rainfall.Importantly, the decline in resilience does not coincide with the decline in forest coverage, suggesting that the Amazon rainforest may be approaching a turning point without showing any change in its average state. is doing.

Boulton et al. Conclude that the findings are important in that they provide observational evidence that the Amazon rainforest is likely to be pushed to key thresholds due to aridity and deforestation. There is.

 
* This article is reprinted from "Nature Japan Featured Highlights".
Reprinted from: "Climate change: Amazon rainforests may be approaching a turning point'