Southeast Amazonia is no longer a carbon sink

Denning, Scott

doi:10.1038/d41586-021-01871-6

NEWS AND VIEWS
14 July 2021

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.

Scott Denning⁰

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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