As Amazon’s ‘flying rivers’ weaken with tree loss, scientists warn of worsening droughts
Bogota, Colombia (AP) – droughts faded in Peru, fires roasted Amazon, and the hydroelectric dams in Ecuador fought to keep the rivers open. Scientists say that the reason may be on the rainforest in which the invisible “flying rivers” in the Atlantic Ocean carries rain in South America.
New analysis He warns that the ruthless forest disrupts the flow of water, and shows that the ongoing tree loss will worsen the droughts in the southwest Amazon and eventually trigger these regions to passing from the rainforest to less wooded pastures.
Matt Finer, a senior researcher who follows the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), who watched Amazon Conservation’s presidential and climate threats in the basin and performs the analysis, said, “These are the forces that really create and maintain the Amazon rainforest.”
“If you break this pump by cutting too many forests, the rains stop reaching where they need to go.”
What are flying rivers and how do they work?
Most of the Amazon’s rainfall starts over the Atlantic Ocean. Damp air is pushed in the inner part with fixed winds that blow to the west along the equator, known as trade winds. The forest then acts like a pump, while the trees absorb water, then the water effectively transfers the water to the west.
Brazilian climatic scientist Carlos Nobre was among the first researchers to calculate how much of the water vapor from the Atlantic would pass through the Amazon Basin and ultimately act. He and his colleagues, in a 2006 scientific meeting, put forward the “Flying Rivers ve and warned scientists that the weakening of the rivers could push Amazon to a overturning point where rainforests would return to the savannah.
This is important because Amazon Rainforest is a large warehouse that greatly directs the world’s heating for carbon dioxide. Such a change destroys wildlife and domestic communities and threatens far beyond the region, agriculture, water resources and air stability.
Warning signs in Peru and Bolivia
The analysis of the Finer group found that South Peru and North Bolivia were particularly vulnerable. During the dry season, the flying rivers are swept in southern Brazil before reaching Andes – where they are most intense. Tree loss is carried to the west of less water vapor and increases the risk of drought in iconic protected areas such as Peru’s Manu National Park.
“Peru can do anything right to protect a place like Manu, Fin was Finer. “But if the disorganization continues to cut into the pump in Brazil, the rains that continue it can never come.”
Nobre said that 50% of the rainfall in Western Amazon near Andes is connected to the flying rivers.
Amazon Conservation’s Peru -based Science Director Corine Vietendorp, the changes are already visible, he said.
“The last two years brought Amazon’s dry conditions for the last two years, V says Vietendorp. “Ecological calendars used by domestic communities – when will be planted, when the fish will be kept, when the animals multiply – it is not increasingly synchronized. Long and more unpredictable rain will have a greater impact on the lives of climate change on their lives.”
Farmer face Unsuccessful harvestingNative families are fighting with corrupted fishing and hunting seasons and cities Trusting hydroelectric power Look at the interruptions as rivers that provide power to dry.
Forest makes a fragile pump
MAAP researchers found that rainfall models depend on when and where the flying rivers pass the basin. In the wet season, the northern roads mostly flow to the solid forests in Guyana, Surinam and Northern Brazil and keep the system strong.
However, in the dry season – when the forests are already emphasized with heat – there are fewer trees to help move air rivers and moisture in southern Brazil, where the forests are spread throughout highways and farms.
“In the dry months when the forest needs the most water, the flying rivers are most deteriorated,” Finer said.
He pointed to ways that could accelerate thinner disintegration and that he was controversial. BR-319 Highway In Brazil, which is a road project from one of the last solid parts of South Amazon, it can create a completely new forest facade.
Overturning point debate
Scientists warned for years to overthrow Amazon towards Savannah. Finer said the new study made this picture complexity.
“This is not one, it’s not a collapse,” he said. “Some areas such as Southwest Amazon are more vulnerable and will first feel the effects. And we see the early symptoms of reducing the wind of the wind of already forested areas.”
Nobre said the risks are sharp. The Amazon forests lost about 17% of their caps, mostly cattle and soy. These ecosystems recycle much less water.
“The dry season is five weeks longer than 45 years ago, with 20 to 30% less rainfall,” he said. “If the disorganization exceeds 20 to 25% and heating reaches 2 degrees Celsius, there is no way to prevent Amazon from reaching the overturning point.”
What can be done?
Researchers say that the protection of solid forests, supporting domestic land rights and recovery of forested areas, he says.
“We need zero -fosterization, deterioration and fires to avoid collapse – he said. “And we should start a large -scale forest restoration, which is not less than half a million square kilometers.
Finer said that governments should take into account the new protection categories specially designed to protect flying rivers – not only the land, but also the atmospheric flows that make rainforests possible.
For Vietendorp, this means regional cooperation. Peru praised Peru for creating large parks and domestic reserves in the Southeast, including Manu National Park. “This cannot be solved only by a country. Peru is connected to Brazil and depends on its neighbors. He said.
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