The Amazon rainforest, one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems and a major absorber of carbon dioxide, is losing its ability to recover from disturbances such as deforestation, fire, and drought, according to new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Using satellite data, researchers from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and Technical University of Munich found that around 75 percent of the Amazon has become less resilient since the early 2000s, returning to its former state more slowly or not at all after destructive events.
That’s an indication that the forest is getting closer to a point of no return, the scientists warn, where drier weather driven by climate change and deforestation could cause permanent forest dieback, potentially transforming the ecosystem into something more closely resembling a savanna or grassland.
That would devastate the forest’s biodiversity, as well as the lives of the Indigenous peoples that rely on it to survive. It would also disrupt global water cycles and turn the
— source grist.org | Diana Kruzman | Mar 08, 2022