IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-05668-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Post-drought decline of the Amazon carbon sink

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Yang

    (University of California
    Boston University
    California Institute of Technology)

  • Sassan S. Saatchi

    (University of California
    California Institute of Technology)

  • Liang Xu

    (University of California
    California Institute of Technology)

  • Yifan Yu

    (California Institute of Technology)

  • Sungho Choi

    (Boston University)

  • Nathan Phillips

    (Boston University)

  • Robert Kennedy

    (Oregon State University)

  • Michael Keller

    (California Institute of Technology
    USDA Forest Service)

  • Yuri Knyazikhin

    (Boston University)

  • Ranga B. Myneni

    (Boston University)

Abstract

Amazon forests have experienced frequent and severe droughts in the past two decades. However, little is known about the large-scale legacy of droughts on carbon stocks and dynamics of forests. Using systematic sampling of forest structure measured by LiDAR waveforms from 2003 to 2008, here we show a significant loss of carbon over the entire Amazon basin at a rate of 0.3 ± 0.2 (95% CI) PgC yr−1 after the 2005 mega-drought, which continued persistently over the next 3 years (2005–2008). The changes in forest structure, captured by average LiDAR forest height and converted to above ground biomass carbon density, show an average loss of 2.35 ± 1.80 MgC ha−1 a year after (2006) in the epicenter of the drought. With more frequent droughts expected in future, forests of Amazon may lose their role as a robust sink of carbon, leading to a significant positive climate feedback and exacerbating warming trends.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Yang & Sassan S. Saatchi & Liang Xu & Yifan Yu & Sungho Choi & Nathan Phillips & Robert Kennedy & Michael Keller & Yuri Knyazikhin & Ranga B. Myneni, 2018. "Post-drought decline of the Amazon carbon sink," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05668-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05668-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05668-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-05668-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David B Clark & Antonio Ferraz & Deborah A Clark & James R Kellner & Susan G Letcher & Sassan Saatchi, 2019. "Diversity, distribution and dynamics of large trees across an old-growth lowland tropical rain forest landscape," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-23, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05668-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.