American Geophysical Union Become an AGU Member
Subscribe to AGU Journals		 AGU Home AGU Publications

Read Full Article (file size: 159431 bytes)    Cited by

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L24712, doi:10.1029/2005GL024981, 2005

Climatic variability and vegetation vulnerability in Amazônia

L. R. Hutyra

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


J. W. Munger

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


C. A. Nobre

Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Cachoeira Paulista, Brazil


S. R. Saleska

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA


S. A. Vieira

Laboratório de Ecologia Isotópica, CENA/USP, Piracicaba, Brazil


S. C. Wofsy

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


Abstract

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.

Received 18 October 2005; accepted 16 November 2005; published 24 December 2005.

Index Terms: 0426 Biogeosciences: Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315); 1616 Global Change: Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513); 1630 Global Change: Impacts of global change (1225); 1637 Global Change: Regional climate change; 1655 Global Change: Water cycles (1836).

Read Full Article (file size: 159431 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Hutyra, L. R., J. W. Munger, C. A. Nobre, S. R. Saleska, S. A. Vieira, and S. C. Wofsy (2005), Climatic variability and vegetation vulnerability in Amazônia, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L24712, doi:10.1029/2005GL024981.