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Synthesis of the land carbon fluxes of the Amazon region between 2010 and 2020

Journal Article · · Communications Earth & Environment
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  1. University of Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom)
  2. University of Leeds (United Kingdom); National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos (Brazil)
  3. University of Leeds (United Kingdom)
  4. Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais da Amazônia, Brasília (Brazil); Lancaster University, Bailrigg (United Kingdom); BeZero Carbon Ltd, London (United Kingdom)
  5. University of Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom); Swiss Federal Institute for Forest Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf (Switzerland)
  6. National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos (Brazil)
  7. University of Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom); UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire (United Kingdom)
  8. University of Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom); Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom)
  9. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) (Germany); Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg (Germany)
  10. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) (Germany)
  11. University of Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom)
  12. Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW (Australia)
  13. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Victoria, BC (Canada)
  14. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
  15. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (United States)
  16. Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai (China)
  17. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
  18. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  19. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany)
  20. University of Bern (Switzerland)
  21. Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany)
  22. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  23. Institute of Applied Energy (IAE), Tokyo (Japan)
  24. Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) (China)
  25. CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
  26. ISPA, INRAE Bordeaux, Villenave d’Ornon (France)
  27. Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot (United Kingdom)
  28. University of Exeter, Devon (United Kingdom); National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos (Brazil)

The Amazon is the largest continuous tropical forest in the world and plays a key role in the global carbon cycle. Human-induced disturbances and climate change have impacted the Amazon carbon balance. Here we conduct a comprehensive synthesis of existing state-of-the-art estimates of the contemporary land carbon fluxes in the Amazon using a set of bottom-up methods (i.e., dynamic vegetation models and bookkeeping models) and a top-down inversion (atmospheric inversion model) over the Brazilian Amazon and the whole Biogeographical Amazon domain. Over the whole biogeographical Amazon region bottom-up methodologies suggest a small average carbon sink over 2010-2020, in contrast to a small carbon source simulated by top-down inversion (2010-2018). However, these estimates are not significantly different from one another when accounting for their large individual uncertainties, highlighting remaining knowledge gaps, and the urgent need to reduce such uncertainties. Nevertheless, both methodologies agreed that the Brazilian Amazon has been a net carbon source during recent climate extremes and that the south-eastern Amazon was a net land carbon source over the whole study period (2010-2020). Overall, our results point to increasing human-induced disturbances (deforestation and forest degradation by wildfires) and reduction in the old-growth forest sink during drought.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT); National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO); São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2283829
Journal Information:
Communications Earth & Environment, Journal Name: Communications Earth & Environment Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 5; ISSN 2662-4435
Publisher:
Springer NatureCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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