Largest Amazon trees grow faster, boosting carbon storage in intact forests.
Deforestation and fires threaten forests’ resilience to climate change impacts.
New study tracks 30 years of Amazon plots, highlighting urgent risks.
The largest trees in the Amazon rainforest are growing bigger and helping draw more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequestering it in bark, trunk, branch and root, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Plants on September 25.
The paper also stated that this proves the intact, undisturbed rainforests are more resilient to climate change than previously believed, even with increasing temperatures and droughts.
However, the report also warned that this benefit is at risk from deforestation, fires and land clearing for roads, farms and cattle ranching. This study comes as Brazil is planning to construct a major road BR-319 through the central Amazon and Bolivia continues clearing forests for soy plantations and cattle ranching.
The study, conducted by almost 100 researchers, assessed recent changes in the structure of Earth’s largest tropical forest by analysing 30 years of Amazonian tree records across 188 mature forest plots. The study found that tree trunks grew about 3.3% thicker per decade, especially the largest trees like Brazil nuts, kapoks and Angelim vermelho. These large trees benefit more than shorter trees because they are better exposed to sunlight and can absorb more CO2, and then assist in the rainforest’s role as a carbon sink.
Resilience Amidst Threats
The Amazon rainforest’s resilience is increasingly under threat due to escalating deforestation and climate change. While the recent study underscored the growth of the Amazon’s largest trees, attributing their expansion to increased atmospheric CO2, this positive development is overshadowed by the rapid degradation of the forest, according to the Rainforest Foundation US.
Similarly, Colombia also saw a sharp overall rise in deforestation in the country’s Amazon rainforest for last year, with a 43% rise in forest loss, driven by factors such as cattle pasture expansion, illegal mining and infrastructure development.
According to the study published in the journal Nature, disturbances such as deforestation and climate change threaten the forest’s ability to sequester carbon effectively. With unchecked destruction, experts warn that continued degradation could push Amazon to a tipping point by 2050 as a result of water stress, land clearance and climate disruption. As a result, in many areas the forests are producing less rain than earlier and converting a carbon sink into a carbon emitter.
