Articles | Volume 23, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9685-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9685-2023
Research article
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01 Sep 2023
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 01 Sep 2023

Atmospheric CO2 inversion reveals the Amazon as a minor carbon source caused by fire emissions, with forest uptake offsetting about half of these emissions

Luana S. Basso, Chris Wilson, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Graciela Tejada, Henrique L. G. Cassol, Egídio Arai, Mathew Williams, T. Luke Smallman, Wouter Peters, Stijn Naus, John B. Miller, and Manuel Gloor

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Cited articles

Anderson, L. O., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Gloor, M., Arai, E., Adami, M., Saatchi, S. S., Malhi, Y., Shimabukuro, Y. E., Barlow, J., Berenguer, E., and Duarte, V.: Disentangling the contribution of multiple land covers to fire-mediated carbon emissions in Amazonia during the 2010 drought, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 29, 1739–1753, https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GB005008, 2015. 
Anderson, L. O., Neto, G. R., Cunha, A. P., Fonseca, M. G., De Moura, Y. M., Dalagnol, R., Wagner, F. H., and De Aragão, L. E. O. E. C.: Vulnerability of Amazonian forests to repeated droughts, Philos. T. Roy. Soc. B, 373, 20170411, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0411, 2018.​​​​​​​ 
Baier, B. C., Sweeney, C., Choi, Y., Davis, K. J., DiGangi, J. P., Feng, S., Fried, A., Halliday, H., Higgs, J., Lauvaux, T., Miller, B. R., Montzka, S. A., Newberger, T., Nowak, J. B., Patra, P., Richter, D., Walega, J., and Weibring, P.: Multispecies Assessment of Factors Influencing Regional CO2 and CH4 Enhancements During the Winter 2017 ACT-America Campaign, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 125, e2019JD031339, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031339, 2020. 
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Executive editor
The Amazon's role in the tropical and global carbon cycle is highly significant. Usually considered as the "lung of the planet", it is mandatory to monitor if this role is kept, or if the large rainforest even turns into a source of carbon dioxide. The study by Basso et al. finds that during the analysed years, from 2010 to 2018, the Amazon is a small net source of carbon to the atmosphere. They find that fire is the primary driver of the Amazonian source, while drought years intensify the carbon emissions. The study also examined the contributions of different regions to the Amazonian carbon budget and found that emissions in the eastern Amazon were greater than those in the western region, primarily due to fires. These findings are of high relevance - and concern - to the larger geosciences community and indicate how important it is to stop slash-and-burn in the large rainforests.
Short summary
The Amazon’s carbon balance may have changed due to forest degradation, deforestation and warmer climate. We used an atmospheric model and atmospheric CO2 observations to quantify Amazonian carbon emissions (2010–2018). The region was a small carbon source to the atmosphere, mostly due to fire emissions. Forest uptake compensated for ~ 50 % of the fire emissions, meaning that the remaining forest is still a small carbon sink. We found no clear evidence of weakening carbon uptake over the period.
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