Revenge of the Rain Forest

The Amazon region may seem remote for much of the world, but researchers have long credited the rain forest, 25 times larger than Great Britain, for absorbing large amounts of carbon emissions. But a new study suggests that the Amazon rain forest emitted more carbon than it absorbed for a period in 2005, reports Steve Connor for the Independent. “Four years ago, a sudden and intense drought in the Amazonian dry season created the sort of conditions that give climate scientists nightmares,” Connor reports. “Instead of being a net absorber of about two billion tons of carbon dioxide, the forest became a net producer of the greenhouse gas, to the tune of about three billion tons.” Researchers estimate the region stores about 100 billion tons of carbon. The 2005 intense drought reduced growth and increased death rates for trees, allowing for the net increase in carbon release. The study demonstrates how remote and seemingly small changes in the world's largest rain forest can lead to huge impacts on the global climate. – YaleGlobal