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Mega-dams and extreme rainfall: Disentangling the drivers of extensive impacts of a large flooding event on Amazon Forests.

ABSTRACT: Extreme weather events and the presence of mega-hydroelectric dams, when combined, present an emerging threat to natural habitats in the Amazon region. To understand the magnitude of these impacts, we used remote sensing data to assess forest loss in areas affected by the extreme 2014 flood in the entire Madeira River basin, the location of two mega-dams. In addition, forest plots (26 ha) were monitored between 2011 and 2015 (14,328 trees) in order to evaluate changes in tree mortality, aboveground biomass (AGB), species composition and community structure around the Jirau reservoir (distance between plots varies from 1 to 80 km). We showed that the mega-dams were the main driver of tree mortality in Madeira basin forests after the 2014 extreme flood. Forest loss in the areas surrounding the reservoirs was 56 km2 in Santo Antônio, 190 km2 in Jirau (7.4-9.2% of the forest cover before flooding), and 79.9% above that predicted in environmental impact assessments. We also show that climatic anomalies, albeit with much smaller impact than that created by the mega-dams, resulted in forest loss along different Madeira sub-basins not affected by dams (34-173 km2; 0.5-1.7%). The impact of flooding was greater in várzea and transitional forests, resulting in high rates of tree mortality (88-100%), AGB decrease (89-100%), and reduction of species richness (78-100%). Conversely, campinarana forests were more flood-tolerant with a slight decrease in species richness (6%) and similar AGB after flooding. Taking together satellite and field measurements, we estimate that the 2014 flood event in the Madeira basin resulted in 8.81-12.47 ∙ 106 tons of dead biomass. Environmental impact studies required for environmental licensing of mega-dams by governmental agencies should consider the increasing trend of climatic anomalies and the high vulnerability of different habitats to minimize the serious impacts of dams on Amazonian biodiversity and carbon stocks.

SUBMITTER: Oliveira WL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7880702 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Several independent lines of evidence suggest that Amazon forests have provided a significant carbon sink service, and also that the Amazon carbon sink in intact, mature forests may now be threatened as a result of different processes. There has however been no work done to quantify non-land-use-change forest carbon fluxes on a national basis within Amazonia, or to place these national fluxes and their possible changes in the context of the major anthropogenic carbon fluxes in the region. Here we present a first attempt to interpret results from ground-based monitoring of mature forest carbon fluxes in a biogeographically, politically, and temporally differentiated way. Specifically, using results from a large long-term network of forest plots, we estimate the Amazon biomass carbon balance over the last three decades for the different regions and nine nations of Amazonia, and evaluate the magnitude and trajectory of these differentiated balances in relation to major national anthropogenic carbon emissions. RESULTS:The sink of carbon into mature forests has been remarkably geographically ubiquitous across Amazonia, being substantial and persistent in each of the five biogeographic regions within Amazonia. Between 1980 and 2010, it has more than mitigated the fossil fuel emissions of every single national economy, except that of Venezuela. For most nations (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname) the sink has probably additionally mitigated all anthropogenic carbon emissions due to Amazon deforestation and other land use change. While the sink has weakened in some regions since 2000, our analysis suggests that Amazon nations which are able to conserve large areas of natural and semi-natural landscape still contribute globally-significant carbon sequestration. CONCLUSIONS:Mature forests across all of Amazonia have contributed significantly to mitigating climate change for decades. Yet Amazon nations have not directly benefited from providing this global scale ecosystem service. We suggest that better monitoring and reporting of the carbon fluxes within mature forests, and understanding the drivers of changes in their balance, must become national, as well as international, priorities.

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Mega-dams and extreme rainfall: Disentangling the drivers of extensive impacts of a large flooding event on Amazon Forests.

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