A drought in the southwestern basin reverses the carbon sink
Anomalously warm tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperatures displace the rain belt north and leave the western and southwestern Amazon without its wet season. Rivers fall to record lows, fire escapes into standing forest, and the RAINFOR permanent plot network - already measuring the same trees before the drought - records the forest switching from a net carbon sink to a net source.
Observed — measured or witnessed, with the observation cited.
Subjects
- The 2005 Amazon Drought · natural phenomenon · Brazil, Peru, Bolivia · not located
- Amazon Basin · region · Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, France (French Guiana) · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Drought sensitivity of the Amazon rainforest
Supports the finding that the 2005 drought reversed the Amazon forest carbon sink measured on the RAINFOR permanent plot network. V55 verification basis: not retrieved in this session; the quantified carbon impact is deliberately not stated because it could not be checked.
Science (AAAS) · 2009 · Partly verified
Phillips, O. L. and colleagues, Science, volume 323 (2009), page 1344
Recorded on The 2005 Amazon Drought
- A drought in the southwestern basin reverses the carbon sink
- Drought sensitivity of the Amazon is published
- A second severe drought follows within five years
- Aircraft profiles show the eastern Amazon emitting more carbon than it absorbs
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.