Recent Changes in Amazon Forest Biomass and Dynamics

RAINFOR has led field-based monitoring of forests across Amazonia since the turn of the millenium, and incorporated colleagues work since 1980. This unique long-term, large-scale perspective has yielded many surprising findings. Even far from the impacts of deforestation and degradation, the remote Amazon forests are changing. They have gained biomass, trees are growing faster, and they are dying faster. These changes are affected by climate change, and the accelerating carbon fluxes are themselves feeding back on the rate of global climate change. Neither has biodiversity been untouched by these changes. As an Amazon nation, Peru is a key part of this fascinating story which shows the unique ability of long-term, science-based monitoring to reveal how our world is changing.