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Southeast Amazonia is no longer a carbon sink

Atmospheric measurements show that deforestation and rapid local warming have reduced or eliminated the capacity of the eastern Amazonian forest to absorb carbon dioxide — with worrying implications for future global warming.
  1. Scott Denning

    1. Scott Denning is in the Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA.

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Since at least the inception of modern records of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 1950s, there has been a small global excess (about 2%) in the amount of CO2 taken up by land plants for photosynthesis, compared with the amount emitted as a result of the decomposition of organic material. This land carbon sink has absorbed around 25% of all fossil-fuel emissions since 1960 (ref. 1)1, offsetting some global warming. Tropical forests have been a major component of the land carbon sink, and the largest intact tropical forest is in Amazonia. Writing in Nature, Gatti et al.2 report extensive direct sampling of the atmosphere over this region. Their data reveal that western Amazonia is still a relatively weak carbon sink, but suggest that deforestation and warming over eastern Amazonia have degraded — or even reversed — regional uptake of carbon by the forest.

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Nature 595, 354-355 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01871-6

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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