In the late 2000s, Scott Saleska noticed something strange going on in the Amazon rainforest.
In the late 2000s, Scott Saleska noticed something strange going on in the Amazon rainforest.
In 2005, a massive drought struck the region. Two years later, Saleska – a University of Arizona professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – published surprising research that used satellite images to find that the drought resulted in more green growth in large swaths of the Amazon. On the other hand, field researchers saw plants brown and some die in response to the drought.
Research published today in the journal Nature reveals what caused the scientific mismatch. Shuli Chen, a doctoral degree candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology who works with Saleska, is the lead author.
Chen and Saleska teamed up with Antonio Nobre, an Earth scientist at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, who was using satellites to detect how landscape topography and groundwater tables interact with forests.
Read more at University of Arizona
Photo Credit: pioordozgoith via Pixabay
