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Atmospheric science

Drought and fire change sink to source

Nature volume 506, pages 41–42 (2014)Cite this article

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Aircraft have captured the 'breath' of the Amazon forest — carbon emissions over the Amazon basin. The findings raise concerns about the effects of future drought and call for a reassessment of how fire is used in the region. See Letter p.76

The Amazon forest accounts for 40% of the aboveground biomass stored in the world's tropical forests1, but we do not know whether this crucial but threatened biome will be a sink or a source of atmospheric carbon in the coming decades2. Given the need to predict future climate scenarios, it is essential to refine our understanding of tropical forests' ability to sequester or release carbon3. The profiling of air columns over such forests by aircraft offers a much-needed window onto the major fluxes of tropical carbon. On page 76 of this issue, Gatti et al.4 report the first estimate of carbon fluxes from the Amazon basin obtained in this way over the course of two years. Their findings suggest that the combined effects of drought and fires can cause the Amazon forest to become a net source of atmospheric carbon.

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Figure 1: Deforestation fire in the southeastern Amazon.

JENNIFER K. BALCH

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  1. Jennifer K. Balch is in the Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.,

    Jennifer K. Balch

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  1. Jennifer K. Balch
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Correspondence to Jennifer K. Balch.

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Balch, J. Drought and fire change sink to source. Nature 506, 41–42 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/506041a

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