Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Climate science

The resilience of Amazonian forests

Nature volume 541, pages 167–168 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Isotope evidence suggests that, during dry periods associated with the most recent ice age, the Amazonian forest survived in a region that is sensitive to rainfall changes — settling a debate about Amazonian aridity. See Letter p.204

A long-standing controversy exists over whether the most recent ice age was dry enough to cause savannahs to replace forests across much of Amazonia1,2. We know that Amazonia cooled by as much as 5 °C during ice ages3, but, crucially, we do not know by how much precipitation changed at the peak of the most recent ice age — the period known as the Last Glacial Maximum, about 24,000 to 18,000 years ago. On page 204, Wang et al.4 provide empirical data for the amount of precipitation over the past 45,000 years in a region of Amazonia that is especially sensitive to conversion to savannah. They also report evidence indicating that the forest in this region did not become savannah, even during the driest period of the most recent ice age.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: The dry corridor.

Mark B. Bush

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. Haffer, J. Science 165, 131–137 (1969).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Colinvaux, P. A., Irion, G., Räsänen, M. E., Bush, M. B. & Nuñes de Mello, J. A. S. Amazoniana 16, 609–646 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Colinvaux, P. A., De Oliveira, P. E., Moreno, J. E., Miller, M. C. & Bush, M. B. Science 274, 85–88 (1996).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Wang, X. et al. Nature 541, 204–207 (2017).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Mosblech, N. A. S. et al. Nature Geosci. 5, 817–820 (2012).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bush, M. B. & De Oliveira, P. E. Biota Neotropica http://doi.org/fwj42s (2006).

  7. Bush, M. B. J. Biogeogr. 21, 5–17 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Barlow, J. & Peres, C. A. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 363, 1787–1794 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Maslin, M. A., Ettwein, V. J., Boot, C. S., Bendle, J. & Pancost, R. D. J. Quat. Sci. 27, 451–460 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Honorio Coronado, E. N. et al. Divers. Distrib. 21, 1295–1307 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Aragão, L. E. O. C. et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 363, 1779–1785 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark B. Bush is in the Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida 32901, USA.,

    Mark B. Bush

Authors
  1. Mark B. Bush
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark B. Bush.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Hydrology: When wells run dry

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bush, M. The resilience of Amazonian forests. Nature 541, 167–168 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/541167a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/541167a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing