Communications Earth & Environment (Jan 2024)
Synthesis of the land carbon fluxes of the Amazon region between 2010 and 2020
- Thais M. Rosan,
- Stephen Sitch,
- Michael O’Sullivan,
- Luana S. Basso,
- Chris Wilson,
- Camila Silva,
- Emanuel Gloor,
- Dominic Fawcett,
- Viola Heinrich,
- Jefferson G. Souza,
- Francisco Gilney Silva Bezerra,
- Celso von Randow,
- Lina M. Mercado,
- Luciana Gatti,
- Andy Wiltshire,
- Pierre Friedlingstein,
- Julia Pongratz,
- Clemens Schwingshackl,
- Mathew Williams,
- Luke Smallman,
- Jürgen Knauer,
- Vivek Arora,
- Daniel Kennedy,
- Hanqin Tian,
- Wenping Yuan,
- Atul K. Jain,
- Stefanie Falk,
- Benjamin Poulter,
- Almut Arneth,
- Qing Sun,
- Sönke Zaehle,
- Anthony P. Walker,
- Etsushi Kato,
- Xu Yue,
- Ana Bastos,
- Philippe Ciais,
- Jean-Pierre Wigneron,
- Clement Albergel,
- Luiz E. O. C. Aragão
Affiliations
- Thais M. Rosan
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Stephen Sitch
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Michael O’Sullivan
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Luana S. Basso
- School of Geography, University of Leeds
- Chris Wilson
- National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leeds
- Camila Silva
- Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais da Amazônia
- Emanuel Gloor
- School of Geography, University of Leeds
- Dominic Fawcett
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Viola Heinrich
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Jefferson G. Souza
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Francisco Gilney Silva Bezerra
- General Coordination of Earth Science (CGCT), National Institute for Space Research (INPE)
- Celso von Randow
- General Coordination of Earth Science (CGCT), National Institute for Space Research (INPE)
- Lina M. Mercado
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Luciana Gatti
- General Coordination of Earth Science (CGCT), National Institute for Space Research (INPE)
- Andy Wiltshire
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Pierre Friedlingstein
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- Julia Pongratz
- Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
- Clemens Schwingshackl
- Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
- Mathew Williams
- School of GeoSciences and National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh
- Luke Smallman
- School of GeoSciences and National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh
- Jürgen Knauer
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University
- Vivek Arora
- Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada
- Daniel Kennedy
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics, Terrestrial Sciences Section
- Hanqin Tian
- Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Boston College
- Wenping Yuan
- School of Atmospheric Sciences, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University
- Atul K. Jain
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois
- Stefanie Falk
- Department of Geography, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)
- Benjamin Poulter
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Biospheric Sciences Lab.
- Almut Arneth
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research/Atmospheric Environmental Research
- Qing Sun
- Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern
- Sönke Zaehle
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Anthony P. Walker
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Etsushi Kato
- Institute of Applied Energy (IAE), Minato-ku
- Xu Yue
- School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST)
- Ana Bastos
- Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
- Philippe Ciais
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
- Jean-Pierre Wigneron
- ISPA, INRAE Bordeaux
- Clement Albergel
- European Space Agency Climate Office, ECSAT
- Luiz E. O. C. Aragão
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01205-0
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 5,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 15
Abstract
Abstract The Amazon is the largest continuous tropical forest in the world and plays a key role in the global carbon cycle. Human-induced disturbances and climate change have impacted the Amazon carbon balance. Here we conduct a comprehensive synthesis of existing state-of-the-art estimates of the contemporary land carbon fluxes in the Amazon using a set of bottom-up methods (i.e., dynamic vegetation models and bookkeeping models) and a top-down inversion (atmospheric inversion model) over the Brazilian Amazon and the whole Biogeographical Amazon domain. Over the whole biogeographical Amazon region bottom-up methodologies suggest a small average carbon sink over 2010-2020, in contrast to a small carbon source simulated by top-down inversion (2010-2018). However, these estimates are not significantly different from one another when accounting for their large individual uncertainties, highlighting remaining knowledge gaps, and the urgent need to reduce such uncertainties. Nevertheless, both methodologies agreed that the Brazilian Amazon has been a net carbon source during recent climate extremes and that the south-eastern Amazon was a net land carbon source over the whole study period (2010-2020). Overall, our results point to increasing human-induced disturbances (deforestation and forest degradation by wildfires) and reduction in the old-growth forest sink during drought.
