Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience
The massive forests of central Amazonia are often considered relatively resilient against climatic variation, but this view is challenged by the wildfires invoked by recent droughts. The impact of such fires that spread from pervasive sources of ignition may reveal where forests are less likely to p...
| Autor principal: | Flores, Bernardo Monteiro |
|---|---|
| Outros Autores: | Holmgren, Milena, Xu, Chi, Nes, Egbert H Van, Jakovac, Catarina Conte, Mesquita, Rita de Cássia Guimarães, Scheffer, Marten |
| Grau: | Artigo |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado em: |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
2020
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| Assuntos: | |
| Acesso em linha: |
https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/14868 |
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oai:repositorio:1-14868 |
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oai:repositorio:1-14868 Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience Flores, Bernardo Monteiro Holmgren, Milena Xu, Chi Nes, Egbert H Van Jakovac, Catarina Conte Mesquita, Rita de Cássia Guimarães Scheffer, Marten Carbon Climate Ecosystem Resilience Fire Floodplain Forest Forest Structure Peatland Priority Journal Remote Sensing Risk Soil Fertility Tree Agriculture Climate Change Flooding Geographic And Geological Phenomena Agriculture Climate Change Fires Floods Forests Geological Phenomena The massive forests of central Amazonia are often considered relatively resilient against climatic variation, but this view is challenged by the wildfires invoked by recent droughts. The impact of such fires that spread from pervasive sources of ignition may reveal where forests are less likely to persist in a drier future. Here we combine field observations with remotely sensed information for the whole Amazon to show that the annually inundated lowland forests that run through the heart of the system may be trapped relatively easily into a fire-dominated savanna state. This lower forest resilience on floodplains is suggested by patterns of tree cover distribution across the basin, and supported by our field and remote sensing studies showing that floodplain fires have a stronger and longer-lasting impact on forest structure as well as soil fertility. Although floodplains cover only 14% of the Amazon basin, their fires can have substantial cascading effects because forests and peatlands may release large amounts of carbon, and wildfires can spread to adjacent uplands. Floodplains are thus an Achilles' heel of the Amazon system when it comes to the risk of large-scale climatedriven transitions. 2020-05-07T13:41:10Z 2020-05-07T13:41:10Z 2017 Artigo https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/14868 10.1073/pnas.1617988114 en Volume 114, Número 17, Pags. 4442-4446 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Brazil http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/br/ application/pdf Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| institution |
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia - Repositório Institucional |
| collection |
INPA-RI |
| language |
English |
| topic |
Carbon Climate Ecosystem Resilience Fire Floodplain Forest Forest Structure Peatland Priority Journal Remote Sensing Risk Soil Fertility Tree Agriculture Climate Change Flooding Geographic And Geological Phenomena Agriculture Climate Change Fires Floods Forests Geological Phenomena |
| spellingShingle |
Carbon Climate Ecosystem Resilience Fire Floodplain Forest Forest Structure Peatland Priority Journal Remote Sensing Risk Soil Fertility Tree Agriculture Climate Change Flooding Geographic And Geological Phenomena Agriculture Climate Change Fires Floods Forests Geological Phenomena Flores, Bernardo Monteiro Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience |
| topic_facet |
Carbon Climate Ecosystem Resilience Fire Floodplain Forest Forest Structure Peatland Priority Journal Remote Sensing Risk Soil Fertility Tree Agriculture Climate Change Flooding Geographic And Geological Phenomena Agriculture Climate Change Fires Floods Forests Geological Phenomena |
| description |
The massive forests of central Amazonia are often considered relatively resilient against climatic variation, but this view is challenged by the wildfires invoked by recent droughts. The impact of such fires that spread from pervasive sources of ignition may reveal where forests are less likely to persist in a drier future. Here we combine field observations with remotely sensed information for the whole Amazon to show that the annually inundated lowland forests that run through the heart of the system may be trapped relatively easily into a fire-dominated savanna state. This lower forest resilience on floodplains is suggested by patterns of tree cover distribution across the basin, and supported by our field and remote sensing studies showing that floodplain fires have a stronger and longer-lasting impact on forest structure as well as soil fertility. Although floodplains cover only 14% of the Amazon basin, their fires can have substantial cascading effects because forests and peatlands may release large amounts of carbon, and wildfires can spread to adjacent uplands. Floodplains are thus an Achilles' heel of the Amazon system when it comes to the risk of large-scale climatedriven transitions. |
| format |
Artigo |
| author |
Flores, Bernardo Monteiro |
| author2 |
Holmgren, Milena Xu, Chi Nes, Egbert H Van Jakovac, Catarina Conte Mesquita, Rita de Cássia Guimarães Scheffer, Marten |
| author2Str |
Holmgren, Milena Xu, Chi Nes, Egbert H Van Jakovac, Catarina Conte Mesquita, Rita de Cássia Guimarães Scheffer, Marten |
| title |
Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience |
| title_short |
Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience |
| title_full |
Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience |
| title_fullStr |
Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Floodplains as an Achilles' heel of Amazonian forest resilience |
| title_sort |
floodplains as an achilles' heel of amazonian forest resilience |
| publisher |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| url |
https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/14868 |
| _version_ |
1787142081589805056 |
| score |
11.653393 |