Net Carbon Absorption By Amazon Forests Down 30% From 1990s Through 2000s - Reuters

[hatrack]

(Reuters) - The Amazon rainforest's ability to soak up greenhouse gases from the air has fallen sharply, possibly because climate change and droughts mean more trees are dying, an international team of scientists said on Wednesday. The world's biggest rainforest has soaked up vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Plants use the heat-trapping gas to grow and release it when they rot or burn, but the report said that role in offsetting global warming may be under threat.

The study, of 321 plots in parts of the Amazon untouched by human activities, estimated the net amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the forest had fallen by 30 percent, to 1.4 billion tonnes a year in the 2000s from 2.0 billion in the 1990s.

"Forest growth has flatlined over the last decade," lead author Roel Brienen of the University of Leeds told Reuters of the findings in the journal Nature. At the same time "the whole forest is living faster - trees grow faster, die faster. The net carbon uptake of forests has significantly weakened," he said of the study by almost 100 experts.

Human carbon emissions in Latin America are overtaking amounts absorbed by the Amazon for the first time, the University of Leeds said in a press release. The scientists said it was unclear if the decline would continue and if the trend applied to other tropical forests such as the Congo basin or Indonesia.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/18/us-environment-amazon-idUSKBN0ME2EW20150318

[Sherman A1]

1. Hardly a surprise

but, not good news, not good at all.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. I think we're past the point of no return.

I don't know that there will be a '22nd century' for humanity.

[Fred Sanders]

3. Gloom and Doom and The Sky is Falling is for Republicans, sir.

[Nihil]

6. So is putting ones fingers in ones ears and ignoring science ...

... not to mention the pretentious bullshit of the fake politeness of "sir" ...

[hatrack]

7. Spend some more time here, and you might learn something

.

[Overseas]

4. Sad K&R.

[trees1planet]

5. But How Long!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a impressive news. But how long? Amazon Forest is a great gift of God. But we the man can't take care of it. We are destroying it. As we most of us know if destroy it we are destroying ourselves. We should love our best friends 'Trees'. The Trees Planet save our life every time.