A new study reveals that leaf turnover strategies and heat stress in Amazonian trees affect atmospheric chemistry and carbon cycling: trees, and in particular brevideciduous trees, emit more and more carbon-rich volatile organic compounds as temperatures rise.
The El Niño drought and heat suppress the capacity of the Amazon rainforest soil to absorb isoprene by a factor of four, while boosting its amount around the forest canopy.
During the 2023–2024 El Niño – the most severe drought ever recorded in the Amazon basin – tree emissions of sesquiterpenes surged. Unexpected emissions of sesquiterpene alcohols in the wet season after the drought, suggesting the forest’s stress-defense metabolism stays active long after the immediate stress has passed.
A new study shows that drought stress reorganizes soil carbon sources in Amazon white-sand forest soils, increasing ecosystem stress and affecting carbon and nutrient cycles.
The Amazon rainforest experienced unusually high temperatures and atmospheric dryness in 2023. Observations from ATTO and further data revealed that the vegetation’s uptake of carbon was above average early in the year, but drastically reduced during the drought season, leading from a carbon sink into a source.
