2015-16 Drought & Fires Released 495 Million Tons CO2; 2.5 Billion Amazon Trees And Vines Died
A major drought and forest fires in the Amazon rainforest killed billions of trees and plants and turned one of the world's largest carbon sinks into one of its biggest polluters. Triggered by the 2015-16 El Niño, extreme drought and associated mega-wildfires caused the death of around 2.5 billion trees and plants and emitted 495 million tonnes of CO2 from an area that makes up just 1.2 per cent of the entire Brazilian Amazon rainforest, and 1 per cent of the whole biome.
The stark findings, discovered by an international team of scientists working for more than eight years on a long-term study in the Amazon before, during and after the El Niño, have significant implications for global efforts to control the atmospheric carbon balance. In normal circumstances, because of high moisture levels, the Amazon rainforest does not burn. However, extreme drought makes the forest temporarily flammable. Fires started by farmers can escape their land and trigger forest fires.
According to climate predictions, extreme droughts will become more common and, until now, the long-term effects of drought and fires on the Amazon rainforest, and particularly within forests disturbed by people through activities such as selective or illegal logging, were largely unknown. Examining the Amazonian epicentre of the El Niño -- Brazil's Lower Tapajós, an eastern Amazonia area around twice the size of Belgium -- the research team, led by scientists from Lancaster University, the University of Oxford, and The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation found the damage lasts for multiple years.
The study revealed that trees and plants in drought-affected forests, as well as burned forests, continued to die at a rate above the norm for up to three years after the El Niño drought -- releasing more CO2.into the atmosphere. The total carbon emissions from the drought and fires in the Lower Tapajós region alone were higher than a whole year's deforestation within the entire Amazon. And, as a result of the drought and fires, the region released as much over a three-year period as some of the world's worst polluting countries' yearly carbon emissions -- exceeding the emissions of developed countries such as the UK and Australia.
EDIT
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210719191611.htm
