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Climate science

The resilience of Amazonian forests

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

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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.

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Figure 1: The dry corridor.

Mark B. Bush

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References

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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

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  1. Mark B. Bush
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Correspondence to Mark B. Bush.

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

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