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The Amazon’s record-setting drought: how bad will it be?

Scientists tell Nature why the rainforest has dried out, and what to expect in the coming months.
  1. Meghie Rodrigues
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A man with a boat navigating sandbanks in an almost dry river bed.

Rivers that cut through the Amazon rainforest are falling to their lowest levels on record. Credit: Bruno Kelly/Reuters

Last month, a portion of the Negro River in the Amazon rainforest near Manaus, Brazil, shrank to a depth of just 12.7 metres — its lowest level in 120 years, when measurements began. In Lake Tefé, about 500 kilometres west, more than 150 river dolphins were found dead, not because of low water levels, but probably because the lake had reached temperatures close to 40 °C.

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Nature 623, 675-676 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03469-6

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