Human influence on Amazon’s aboveground carbon dynamics intensified over the last decade
The Amazon rainforest is crucial for the global carbon cycle, yet annual changes in its aboveground biomass carbon (AGC) stock remain highly uncertain. Natural and local anthropogenic drivers such as deforestation, forest degradation, and regrowth following deforestation interact with large-scale climate variability to determine AGC dynamics. Here, we propose an approach to disaggregate low-frequency passive L-band microwave data over 2010-2020 and reconstruct maps of annual change. We show that the Amazon lost -0.37 ± 0.17 PgC, with gains by undisturbed (0.33 ± 0.13 PgC) and secondary forest growth (0.33 ± 0.05 PgC) outweighed by losses by deforestation (-0.55 ± 0.04 PgC), degradation (-0.42 ± 0.08 PgC), and agricultural areas (-0.06 ± 0.03 PgC). Losses in human-influenced land intensified over time and amounted to 60% of all gross losses in El Niño years. Our study reinforces the need for stronger implementation of policies and effective actions to control forest degradation.
Authors
- Arnan Araza
- Lei Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2146-6438)
- Arthur Nicolaus Fendrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7436-5657)
- Yu Feng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6433-5035)
- Jean‐Pierre Wigneron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5345-3618)
- Jean Pierre Ometto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4221-1039)
- Martin Herold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0246-6886)
- Jérôme Chave (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7766-1347)
- Yidi Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1528-4256)
- Luiz E. O. C. Aragão (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4134-6708)
- Philippe Ciais (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8560-4943)
- Isabel Martínez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4205-8596)
- Zheyuan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7434-5947)
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR)
- Henan University (CN)
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (FR)
- Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse (FR)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- European Commission (BE)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques de Bordeaux-Aquitaine (FR)
- Joint Research Centre (IT)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (DE)
- Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (FR)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo
- Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (BR)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-07-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61856-1
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.21