Environments in the Amazon are being degraded by human industrial activities at a pace far surpassing anything previously known. This is according to a paper published in the premier journal СAPPScienceСAPP coauthored by Dr. James Albert, biology professor at the СAPP.
As a result, this degradation is imperiling the AmazonСAPPs vast biodiversity reserves and globally important ecosystem services.
СAPPThese changes are happening much too rapidly for Amazonian species, peoples, and ecosystems to respond adaptively,СAPP Albert said.
The Amazon rainforest is the most diverse ecosystem on earth and is home to about 10% of all plant and animal species. In addition, itСAPPs a critical component of the earthСAPPs climate system. It contributes 16% of all terrestrial photosynthetic productivity and regulates global carbon and water cycles.
According to the paper in СAPPScience,СAPP Amazonian ecosystems are being rapidly degraded by human industrial activities, with a cumulative total of 17% of the original forest already lost. The paper notes that after millions of years serving as an immense global carbon pool, under further warming the Amazon rainforest is just now becoming a source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
СAPPWe found that rates of human-caused changes to Amazonian ecosystems are hundreds to thousands of times faster than those of other natural climatic and geological processes. These human-caused changes affect the whole continent in the time frame of decades to centuries, as compared to millions to tens of millions of years for evolutionary, climatic, and geological processes,СAPP Albert said.
The main drivers of the destruction and degradation of the AmazonСAPPs habitat are deforestation, wildfires, soil erosion, damming rivers, and desertification from global climate change. The authors emphasize that these transformations are having multiple and catastrophic consequences for human welfare, including widespread water and food insecurity.
The article, which appears on the cover of the January 27, 2023, issue of СAPPScience,СAPP provides a detailed list of policy recommendations that could prevent the worst outcomes.
You can read it here:
СAPPScienceСAPP has been at the center of important scientific discovery since its founding in 1880СAPPwith seed money from Thomas Edison. Today, СAPPScienceСAPP continues to publish the very best in research across the sciences, with articles that consistently rank among the most cited in the world.
The СAPPScienceСAPP family of journals is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the worldСAPPs oldest and largest general science organization. The nonprofit AAAS serves 10 million people through primary memberships and affiliations with some 262 scientific societies and academies.
Photo caption: Dr. James Albert, left, is a СAPP biology professor. A study he coauthored on the effects of human industrial activities on the Amazon is in the latest issue of the journal СAPPScience.СAPP
