More than one third of the Amazon rainforest may have been degraded by human activity and drought, researchers said Thursday, and action is needed to protect the critically important ecosystem.

In a study published in the journal Science, the researchers said the damage done to the forest which spans nine countries is significantly greater than previously known.

For the study, they examined the impact of fire, logging, drought and changes to habitat along the forest borders -- what they called edge effects.

Most previous research into the Amazon ecosystem has focused on the consequences of deforestation.

The study found that fire, timber extraction and edge effects have degraded at least 5.5 percent of all remaining Amazonian forests, or 364,748 square kilometers, between 2001 and 2018.

But when the effects of drought are factored in, the degraded area increases to 2.5 million square kms, or 38 percent of the remaining Amazonian forests.

"Extreme droughts have become increasingly frequent in the Amazon as land-use change and human-induced climate change progress, affecting tree mortality, fire incidence, and carbon emissions to the atmosphere," the researchers said.

"Forest fires intensify during drought years," they said, warning of the dangers of "much larger megafires" in the future.

The researchers from Brazil's Universidade Estadual de Campinas and other institutions used satellite images and other data from 2001 to 2018 to reach their conclusions.

In a separate study published in Science of the human impacts on the Amazon, researchers from the University of Louisiana Lafayette and elsewhere called for action.

"The Amazon is perched to transition rapidly from a largely natural to degraded and transformed landscape, under the combined pressures of regional deforestation and global climate change," they said.

"The changes are happening much too rapidly for Amazonian species, peoples, and ecosystems to respond adaptively," they said. "Policies to prevent the worst outcomes are known and must be enacted immediately.

"To fail the Amazon is to fail the biosphere, and we fail to act at our peril," they said.

Brazil's new president, leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has pledged to end deforestation of the Amazon by 2030.

Related Links
Forestry News - Global and Local News, Science and Application

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Protecting Amazon a tough task, says Brazil's environment minister
Brasilia (AFP) Jan 24, 2023
Brazil's environment minister Marina Silva knows she has her work cut out to protect the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest that is shared among nine countries. "It will be difficult," Silva acknowledged in an interview with AFP on Monday night. Just three weeks into the job, Silva said the environmental situation in her country, which is home to more than 60 percent of the Amazon, was "worse than expected." When left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appointed this emblematic fig ... read more