According to the study, trees experience “climate-induced mortality.”
Brazil’s rainforests have begun to release more carbon than they absorb as the warming climate kills more trees, researchers said.
Forests play an important role in the fight against climate change due to their ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere, but seasonal and dry forests in southeastern Brazil have gradually absorbed less carbon as they are released. more over time, with the transition from the carbon region sinking to a carbon source “in 2013, according to a study published Friday in Science.
The study found that the region has experienced a 2.6% decrease in annual carbon gains and a 3.4% simultaneous carbon loss. The researchers studied 33 years of data from the region. Drier, warmer forests experience the largest increase in carbon dioxide emissions as higher temperatures kill more trees.
Previous studies of the Amazon rainforest have shown that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can increase plant growth and, as a result, carbon storage, but data show that seasonal rainforests do not experience similar results, the researchers said.
Until 2013, Brazil was the main source of carbon emissions due to gross deforestation and dry and seasonal tropical forests are especially sensitive to climate change due to periodic droughts that are already facing naturally, according to the study.
The authors concluded that conservation policies for Brazil’s drier, warmer forest sites are needed, as well as policy actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to prevent further damage to tropical forests.