A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation

Ovidiu Csillik; Michael Keller; Marcos Longo; Antonio Ferraz; Ekena Rangel Pinagé; Eric Bastos Görgens; Jean P. Ometto; Vinicius Silgueiro; David Brown; Paul Duffy; K. C. Cushman; Sassan Saatchi

doi:10.1073/pnas.2310157121

A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation

Ovidiu Csillik, Michael Keller, Marcos Longo, Antonio Ferraz, Ekena Rangel Pinagé, Eric Bastos Görgens, Jean P. Ometto, Vinicius Silgueiro, David Brown, Paul Duffy, K. C. Cushman, Sassan Saatchi

Ecosystem Processes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Amazon forest contains globally important carbon stocks, but in recent years, atmospheric measurements suggest that it has been releasing more carbon than it has absorbed because of deforestation and forest degradation. Accurately attributing the sources of carbon loss to forest degradation and natural disturbances remains a challenge because of the difficulty of classifying disturbances and simultaneously estimating carbon changes. We used a unique, randomized, repeated, very high-resolution airborne laser scanning survey to provide a direct, detailed, and high-resolution partitioning of aboveground carbon gains and losses in the Brazilian Arc of Deforestation. Our analysis revealed that disturbances directly attributed to human activity impacted 4.2% of the survey area while windthrows and other disturbances affected 2.7% and 14.7%, respectively. Extrapolating the lidar-based statistics to the study area (544,300 km²), we found that 24.1, 24.2, and 14.5 Tg C y⁻¹ were lost through clearing, fires, and logging, respectively. The losses due to large windthrows (21.5 Tg C y⁻¹) and other disturbances (50.3 Tg C y⁻¹) were partially counterbalanced by forest growth (44.1 Tg C y⁻¹). Our high-resolution estimates demonstrated a greater loss of carbon through forest degradation than through deforestation and a net loss of carbon of 90.5 ± 16.6 Tg C y⁻¹ for the study region attributable to both anthropogenic and natural processes. This study highlights the role of forest degradation in the carbon balance for this critical region in the Earth system.

Original language	English
Article number	e2310157121
Journal	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume	121
Issue number	33
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310157121
State	Published - Aug 13 2024

Funding

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The research of O.C., M.K., A.F., and S.S. carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, was under a contract with the NASA (80NM0018D0004). The research of K.C.C. was carried out at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is managed by the University of Tennessee-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. O.C., M.K., M.L., and K.C.C were supported by the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments\u2010Tropics, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (DE-AC02-05CH11231). E.R.P. was supported by a NASA LCLUC Program grant (20-LCLUC2020-0024). Funding for EBA airborne lidar datasets was provided by the Amazon Fund/BNDES (Grant 14.2.0929.1, Improving Biomass Estimation Methods for the Amazon\u2014EBA); Coordena\u00E7\u00E3o de Aperfei\u00E7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00EDvel Superior Brasil (CAPES; Finance Code 001); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00EDfico e Tecnol\u00F3gico (Processes 403297/2016-8 and 301661/2019-7). Support to generate carbon calibrations was provided by the Sustainable Landscapes Brazil project supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the US Forest Service, and USAID, and the US Department of State. The research of O.C., M.K., A.F., and S.S. carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, was under a contract with the NASA (80NM0018D0004). The research of K.C.C. was carried out at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is managed by the University of Tennessee-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. O.C., M.K., M.L., and K.C.C were supported by the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments\u2010Tropics, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (DE-AC02-05CH11231). E.R.P. was supported by a NASA LCLUC Program grant (20-LCLUC2020-0024). Funding for EBA airborne lidar datasets was provided by the Amazon Fund/BNDES (Grant 14.2.0929.1, Improving Biomass Estimation Methods for the Amazon\u2014EBA); Coordena\u00E7\u00E3o de Aperfei\u00E7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00EDvel Superior Brasil (CAPES; Finance Code 001); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00EDfico e Tecnol\u00F3gico (Processes 403297/2016-8 and 301661/2019-7). Support to generate carbon calibrations was provided by the Sustainable Landscapes Brazil project supported by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), the US Forest Service, and USAID, and the US Department of State.

Funders	Funder number
United States Agency for International Development
U.S. Department of State
Fundo Amazônia
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
U.S. Forest Service
U.S. Department of Energy
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária
Office of Science
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	20-LCLUC2020-0024, 80NM0018D0004
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico	403297/2016-8, 301661/2019-7
Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social	14.2.0929.1
University of Tennessee-Battelle	DE-AC05-00OR22725
Biological and Environmental Research	DE-AC02-05CH11231, 20-LCLUC2020-0024

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10.1073/pnas.2310157121

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Csillik, O., Keller, M., Longo, M., Ferraz, A., Pinagé, E. R., Görgens, E. B., Ometto, J. P., Silgueiro, V., Brown, D., Duffy, P., Cushman, K. C., & Saatchi, S. (2024). A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121(33), Article e2310157121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310157121

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title = "A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation",

abstract = "The Amazon forest contains globally important carbon stocks, but in recent years, atmospheric measurements suggest that it has been releasing more carbon than it has absorbed because of deforestation and forest degradation. Accurately attributing the sources of carbon loss to forest degradation and natural disturbances remains a challenge because of the difficulty of classifying disturbances and simultaneously estimating carbon changes. We used a unique, randomized, repeated, very high-resolution airborne laser scanning survey to provide a direct, detailed, and high-resolution partitioning of aboveground carbon gains and losses in the Brazilian Arc of Deforestation. Our analysis revealed that disturbances directly attributed to human activity impacted 4.2% of the survey area while windthrows and other disturbances affected 2.7% and 14.7%, respectively. Extrapolating the lidar-based statistics to the study area (544,300 km2), we found that 24.1, 24.2, and 14.5 Tg C y−1 were lost through clearing, fires, and logging, respectively. The losses due to large windthrows (21.5 Tg C y−1) and other disturbances (50.3 Tg C y−1) were partially counterbalanced by forest growth (44.1 Tg C y−1). Our high-resolution estimates demonstrated a greater loss of carbon through forest degradation than through deforestation and a net loss of carbon of 90.5 ± 16.6 Tg C y−1 for the study region attributable to both anthropogenic and natural processes. This study highlights the role of forest degradation in the carbon balance for this critical region in the Earth system.",

author = "Ovidiu Csillik and Michael Keller and Marcos Longo and Antonio Ferraz and Pinag{\'e}, {Ekena Rangel} and G{\"o}rgens, {Eric Bastos} and Ometto, {Jean P.} and Vinicius Silgueiro and David Brown and Paul Duffy and Cushman, {K. C.} and Sassan Saatchi",

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doi = "10.1073/pnas.2310157121",

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Csillik, O, Keller, M, Longo, M, Ferraz, A, Pinagé, ER, Görgens, EB, Ometto, JP, Silgueiro, V, Brown, D, Duffy, P, Cushman, KC & Saatchi, S 2024, 'A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 121, no. 33, e2310157121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2310157121

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T1 - A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation

AU - Csillik, Ovidiu

AU - Keller, Michael

AU - Longo, Marcos

AU - Ferraz, Antonio

AU - Pinagé, Ekena Rangel

AU - Görgens, Eric Bastos

AU - Ometto, Jean P.

AU - Silgueiro, Vinicius

AU - Brown, David

AU - Duffy, Paul

AU - Cushman, K. C.

AU - Saatchi, Sassan

PY - 2024/8/13

Y1 - 2024/8/13

N2 - The Amazon forest contains globally important carbon stocks, but in recent years, atmospheric measurements suggest that it has been releasing more carbon than it has absorbed because of deforestation and forest degradation. Accurately attributing the sources of carbon loss to forest degradation and natural disturbances remains a challenge because of the difficulty of classifying disturbances and simultaneously estimating carbon changes. We used a unique, randomized, repeated, very high-resolution airborne laser scanning survey to provide a direct, detailed, and high-resolution partitioning of aboveground carbon gains and losses in the Brazilian Arc of Deforestation. Our analysis revealed that disturbances directly attributed to human activity impacted 4.2% of the survey area while windthrows and other disturbances affected 2.7% and 14.7%, respectively. Extrapolating the lidar-based statistics to the study area (544,300 km2), we found that 24.1, 24.2, and 14.5 Tg C y−1 were lost through clearing, fires, and logging, respectively. The losses due to large windthrows (21.5 Tg C y−1) and other disturbances (50.3 Tg C y−1) were partially counterbalanced by forest growth (44.1 Tg C y−1). Our high-resolution estimates demonstrated a greater loss of carbon through forest degradation than through deforestation and a net loss of carbon of 90.5 ± 16.6 Tg C y−1 for the study region attributable to both anthropogenic and natural processes. This study highlights the role of forest degradation in the carbon balance for this critical region in the Earth system.

AB - The Amazon forest contains globally important carbon stocks, but in recent years, atmospheric measurements suggest that it has been releasing more carbon than it has absorbed because of deforestation and forest degradation. Accurately attributing the sources of carbon loss to forest degradation and natural disturbances remains a challenge because of the difficulty of classifying disturbances and simultaneously estimating carbon changes. We used a unique, randomized, repeated, very high-resolution airborne laser scanning survey to provide a direct, detailed, and high-resolution partitioning of aboveground carbon gains and losses in the Brazilian Arc of Deforestation. Our analysis revealed that disturbances directly attributed to human activity impacted 4.2% of the survey area while windthrows and other disturbances affected 2.7% and 14.7%, respectively. Extrapolating the lidar-based statistics to the study area (544,300 km2), we found that 24.1, 24.2, and 14.5 Tg C y−1 were lost through clearing, fires, and logging, respectively. The losses due to large windthrows (21.5 Tg C y−1) and other disturbances (50.3 Tg C y−1) were partially counterbalanced by forest growth (44.1 Tg C y−1). Our high-resolution estimates demonstrated a greater loss of carbon through forest degradation than through deforestation and a net loss of carbon of 90.5 ± 16.6 Tg C y−1 for the study region attributable to both anthropogenic and natural processes. This study highlights the role of forest degradation in the carbon balance for this critical region in the Earth system.

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JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

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M1 - e2310157121

ER -

A large net carbon loss attributed to anthropogenic and natural disturbances in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation

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