The capacity of the Amazon forest to store carbon in a changing climate will ultimately be determined by how fast trees die – and what kills them.
The capacity of the Amazon forest to store carbon in a changing climate will ultimately be determined by how fast trees die – and what kills them. Now, a huge new study has unravelled what factors control tree mortality rates in Amazon forests and helps to explain why tree mortality is increasing across the Amazon basin.
This large analysis found that the mean growth rate of the tree species is the main risk factor behind Amazon tree death, with faster-growing trees dying off at a younger age. These findings have important consequences for our understanding of the future of these forests. Climate change tends to select fast-growing species. If the forests selected by climate change are more likely die younger, they will also store less carbon.
The study, co-led by the Universities of Leeds and Birmingham in collaboration with more than 100 scientists, is the first large scale analysis of the causes of tree death in the Amazon and uses long-term records gathered by the international RAINFOR network.
The results, published in Nature Communications, show that species-level growth rates are a key risk factor for tree mortality.
Read more at University of Birmingham
Photo Credit: TNeto via Pixabay
