Forests in the Brazilian Amazon damaged by fire remain about 2.6 °C (4.7 °F) hotter than neighboring intact or selectively logged stands, and the extra heat can linger for at least 30 years.
Forests in the Brazilian Amazon damaged by fire remain about 2.6 °C (4.7 °F) hotter than neighboring intact or selectively logged stands, and the extra heat can linger for at least 30 years. The findings suggest that fire alters tropical forests in ways that slow their recovery and may weaken their ability to tolerate climate stress and store carbon—a crucial role these forests play in global climate mitigation.
The study was published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
“We’re finding that burning has major ecological impacts over large timescales and that regeneration is much more at risk—it’s slower or not happening at all,” said lead author Savannah S. Cooley, a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and a recent PhD graduate of Columbia’s Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (E3B) program. (Cooley was co-advised by Duncan Menge and Ruth DeFries, professor and co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School.)
Unlike fire-adapted ecosystems such as savannas or pine forests, Amazon rainforests evolved in humid conditions where natural fires were rare. As a result, many tropical tree species haven’t developed traits to tolerate or recover from fire damage.
Read more at Columbia Climate School
Photo Credit: TNeto via Pixabay
