Increased Occurrence of Large–Scale Windthrows Across the Amazon Basin

Urquiza‐Muñoz, J. David; Trumbore, Susan; Negrón‐Juárez, Robinson I.; Feng, Yanlei; Brenning, Alexander; Vasquez‐Parana, C. Michael; Marra, Daniel Magnabosco

doi:10.1029/2023av001030

Increased Occurrence of Large–Scale Windthrows Across the Amazon Basin

Journal Article · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2024 · AGU Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023av001030· OSTI ID:2497751

^[1]; ^[2]; Negrón‐Juárez, Robinson I. ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[6]; Marra, Daniel Magnabosco ^[7]

Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany); Friedrich Schiller Univ., Jena (Germany); Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos (Peru)
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Friedrich Schiller Univ., Jena (Germany)
Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos (Peru)
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena (Germany); Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), Braunschweig (Germany)

Convective storms with strong downdrafts create windthrows: snapped and uprooted trees that locally alter the structure, composition, and carbon balance of forests. Comparing Landsat imagery from subsequent years, we documented temporal and spatial variation in the occurrence of large (≥30 ha) windthrows across the Amazon basin from 1985 to 2020. Over 33 individual years, we detected 3179 large windthrows. Windthrow density was greatest in the central and western Amazon regions, with ~33% of all events occurring in ~3% of the monitored area. Return intervals for large windthrows in the same location of these “hotspot” regions are centuries to millennia, while over the rest of the Amazon they are >10,000 years. Our data demonstrate a nearly 4–fold increase in windthrow number and affected area between 1985 (78 windthrows and 6,900 ha) and 2020 (264 events and 32,170 ha), with more events of >500 ha size since 1990. Such extremely large events (>500 ha up to 2,543 ha) are responsible for interannual variation in the overall median (84 ± 5.2 ha; ±95% CI) and mean (147 ± 13 ha) windthrow area, but we did not find significant temporal trends in the size distribution of windthrows with time. Our results document increased damage from convective storms over the past 40 years in the Amazon, filling a gap in temporal records for tropical regions. Our publicly accessible large windthrow database provides a valuable tool for exploring dynamic conditions leading to damaging storms and their ecological impact on Amazon forests.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2497751

Journal Information:: AGU Advances, Journal Name: AGU Advances Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 5; ISSN 2576-604X

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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