The Amazon basin in transition
Abstract
Agricultural expansion and climate variability have become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon basin. Recent studies have demonstrated considerable resilience of Amazonian forests to moderate annual drought, but they also show that interactions between deforestation, fire and drought potentially lead to losses of carbon storage and changes in regional precipitation patterns and river discharge. Although the basin-wide impacts of land use and drought may not yet surpass the magnitude of natural variability of hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles, there are some signs of a transition to a disturbance-dominated regime. These signs include changing energy and water cycles in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon basin.
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In 2012, Davidson et al. demonstrated how the Amazon basin was experiencing a transition to a 'disturbance-dominated regime' related to climatic and land use changes, even though at the time, annual deforestation rates were declining owing to new forms of governance.
“In 2012, Davidson et al.102 demonstrated how the Amazon basin was experiencing a transition to a ‘disturbance-dominated regime’ related to climatic and land use changes, even though at the time, annual deforestation rates were declining owing to new forms of governance103.”
From Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system (2024) · cites this paper as [102]
Cites
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Damming the rivers of the Amazon basin
Latrubesse, E. M., Arima, E. Y., Dunne, T., Park, E., Baker, V. R., d’Horta, F. M., Wight, C., Wittmann, F., Zuanon, J., Baker, P. A., et al. (2017) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature22333 · Cited by 838 · see citing works
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Self-citationParticipatory Action Research for Conservation and Development: Experiences from the Amazon
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Davidson, E. A., de Araújo, A. C., Artaxo, P., Balch, J. K., Brown, I. F., C. Bustamante, M. M., Coe, M. T., DeFries, R. S., Keller, M., Longo, M., Munger, J. W., Schroeder, W., Soares-Filho, B. S., Souza, C. M., & Wofsy, S. C.
- Affiliations
- Woodwell Climate Research Center (US)
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- Columbia University (US)
- US Forest Service (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (US)
- Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Davidson, Eric A.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2012-01-18
- Volume
- 481
- Issue
- 7381
- Pages
- 321-328
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1963799937
- Cited by
- 1,273
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 58 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 94 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 107 · 2021: 109 · 2020: 111 · 2019: 100 · 2018: 109 · 2017: 75 · 2016: 99 · 2015: 86 · 2014: 79 · 2013: 72 · 2012: 34
- FWCI
- 6.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2012-03-07)
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Keywords
- Amazon basin, deforestation, forest fires, climate change, regional hydrology, energy balance, carbon storage, drought, agricultural expansion, precipitation patterns, river discharge, land use change, disturbance regimes, forest resilience, LBA
- MeSH terms
- Brazil, Fires, Rain, Seasons, Trees, Forestry, Ecosystem, Rivers, Droughts, Climate Change, Carbon Cycle
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