The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation

David M Lapola; Patricia Pinho; Jos Barlow; Luiz E O C Aragão; Erika Berenguer; Rachel Carmenta; Hannah M Liddy; Hugo Seixas; Camila V J Silva; Celso H L Silva-Junior; Ane A C Alencar; Liana O Anderson; Dolors Armenteras; Victor Brovkin; Kim Calders; Jeffrey Chambers; Louise Chini; Marcos H Costa; Bruno L Faria; Philip M Fearnside; Joice Ferreira; Luciana Gatti; Victor Hugo Gutierrez-Velez; Zhangang Han; Kathleen Hibbard; Charles Koven; Peter Lawrence; Julia Pongratz; Bruno T T Portela; Mark Rounsevell; Alex C Ruane; Rüdiger Schaldach; Sonaira S da Silva; Celso von Randow; Wayne S Walker

doi:10.1126/science.abp8622

The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation

Science. 2023 Jan 27;379(6630):eabp8622. doi: 10.1126/science.abp8622. Epub 2023 Jan 27.

Authors

David M Lapola¹, Patricia Pinho², Jos Barlow³, Luiz E O C Aragão^{4

5}, Erika Berenguer^{3

6}, Rachel Carmenta⁷, Hannah M Liddy^{8

9}, Hugo Seixas¹, Camila V J Silva^{2

3

10}, Celso H L Silva-Junior^{11

12

13}, Ane A C Alencar², Liana O Anderson¹⁴, Dolors Armenteras¹⁵, Victor Brovkin¹⁶, Kim Calders^{17

18}, Jeffrey Chambers¹⁹, Louise Chini²⁰, Marcos H Costa²¹, Bruno L Faria²², Philip M Fearnside²³, Joice Ferreira²⁴, Luciana Gatti⁴, Victor Hugo Gutierrez-Velez²⁵, Zhangang Han²⁶, Kathleen Hibbard²⁷, Charles Koven¹⁹, Peter Lawrence²⁸, Julia Pongratz^{16

29}, Bruno T T Portela²³, Mark Rounsevell^{30

31}, Alex C Ruane⁹, Rüdiger Schaldach³², Sonaira S da Silva³³, Celso von Randow⁴, Wayne S Walker³⁴

Affiliations

¹ Laboratório de Ciência do Sistema Terrestre - LabTerra, Centro de Pesquisas Meteorológicas e Climáticas Aplicadas à Agricultura - CEPAGRI, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
² Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais da Amazônia, Brasília, DF, Brazil.
³ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
⁴ Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
⁵ Geography, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
⁶ Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
⁷ University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
⁸ Columbia Climate School, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁰ BeZero Carbon Ltd, London, UK.
¹¹ Institute of Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹² Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹³ Programa de Pós-graduação em Biodiversidade e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Maranhão - UFMA, São Luís, MA, Brazil.
¹⁴ Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
¹⁵ Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.
¹⁶ Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany.
¹⁷ Computational & Applied Vegetation Ecology Laboratory, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Belgium.
¹⁸ School of Forest Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland.
¹⁹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
²⁰ University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
²¹ Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, Brazil.
²² Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Norte de Minas Gerais, Diamantina, MG, Brazil.
²³ Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil.
²⁴ Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Belém, PA, Brazil.
²⁵ Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
²⁶ Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
²⁷ National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA.
²⁸ National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA.
²⁹ Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
³⁰ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.
³¹ University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
³² University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.
³³ Universidade Federal do Acre, Cruzeiro do Sul, AC, Brazil.
³⁴ Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, USA.

PMID: 36701452
DOI: 10.1126/science.abp8622

Abstract

Approximately 2.5 × 10⁶ square kilometers of the Amazon forest are currently degraded by fire, edge effects, timber extraction, and/or extreme drought, representing 38% of all remaining forests in the region. Carbon emissions from this degradation total up to 0.2 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year^-1), which is equivalent to, if not greater than, the emissions from Amazon deforestation (0.06 to 0.21 Pg C year^-1). Amazon forest degradation can reduce dry-season evapotranspiration by up to 34% and cause as much biodiversity loss as deforestation in human-modified landscapes, generating uneven socioeconomic burdens, mainly to forest dwellers. Projections indicate that degradation will remain a dominant source of carbon emissions independent of deforestation rates. Policies to tackle degradation should be integrated with efforts to curb deforestation and complemented with innovative measures addressing the disturbances that degrade the Amazon forest.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Biodiversity
Brazil
Carbon Cycle
Carbon*
Conservation of Natural Resources*
Rainforest*

Substances

Carbon