The Brazilian Amazon currently releases about 0.2 Pg-C to the atmosphere each year as a result of net deforestation. Logging and forest fire activity are poorly quantified but certainly increase this amount by more than 10%. Fires associated with land management activities generate smoke that leads to heating of the lower atmosphere, decreases in overall cloudiness, increases in cloud lifetimes, and the suppression of rainfall. There are considerable uncertainties associated with our understanding of smoke effects. Present development trends point to agricultural intensification in the Brazilian Amazon. This intensification and the associated generation of wealth present an opportunity to enhance governance on the frontier and to minimize the damaging effects of fires.
Hidden destruction of older forests threatens Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and challenges restoration programs
Hidden destruction of older forests threatens Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and challenges restoration programs
Understanding the dynamics of native forest loss and gain is critical for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services, especially in regions experiencing intense forest transformations. We quantified native forest cover dynamics on an annual basis from 1990 to...