Premium
Climatic variability and vegetation vulnerability in Amazônia
Author(s) -
Hutyra L. R.,
Munger J. W.,
Nobre C. A.,
Saleska S. R.,
Vieira S. A.,
Wofsy S. C.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2005gl024981
Subject(s) - amazonian , vegetation (pathology) , climate change , evapotranspiration , environmental science , amazon rainforest , climatology , arid , desertification , physical geography , geography , ecology , geology , medicine , pathology , biology
Models of climate change predict close coupling between increases in aridity and conversion of Amazonian forests to savanna. Here we assess the vulnerability and resilience of Amazonian vegetation to climate change by analyzing observed climate‐vegetation relationships using climate data, observed vegetation distributions, and evapotranspiration rates inferred from eddy flux data. We found that drought frequency is an excellent predictor of the forest‐savanna boundary, indicating the key role of extreme climatic events for inducing vegetation change, and highlighting particularly vulnerable regions of Amazônia.