Explain the relationship between climatic conditions and forests in the
Amazon basin.
Answers
Climate change may have a significant impact on the Amazon, according to a number of studies conducted since the mid-1990's.
Of particular concern is the link between sea temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and drought in the Amazon. As the tropical Atlantic warms, the large parts of the Amazon may see higher temperatures and less rainfall. The changes could have cascading effects on the region's ecosystem, killing trees and leaving forests more vulnerable to fire. Some models forecast a transition towards seasonal forests and savannas toward the end of the century, as climate warms.
2005: a peak at the future?
2005 is viewed by some researchers as a precursor to the impact climate change could have in the Amazon. In 2005 the Amazon experienced the worst drought in memory. As rivers dried up, remote communities were isolated while commerce slowed to a standstill. Thousands of square kilometers of land burned for months on end, releasing more than 100 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere.
At the time of the drought scientists observed an apparent correlation between sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and precipitation in the Amazon. In 2008 Dr. Jose Marengo and colleagues from Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) and the Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço (IEA), confirmed that "the 2005 drought was linked not to El Niño as with most previous droughts in the Amazon, but to warming sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean."