A study from the scientist in Brazil finds an alarming fact about the Amazon river. The findings found that the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission is almost balanced the terrestrial uptake.
Scientists always consider that forests work as the lung of the earth to absorb the greenhouse gas emission. According to WWF, the Amazon rainforest has long been recognized as a repository of ecological services. However, the survey from the team of scientists from Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture, at the University of São Paulo found that the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission is almost equal to the terrestrial uptake.
The scientists that analyze the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission were led by Dr. Henrique Sawakuchi. Their research is the first one that provides detailed evaluations of the carbon dioxide concentration and fluxes in the Amazon river and its two branches, the Tapajós and Xingu. From their measurement of Amazon river carbon dioxide emission, they found that the Amazon basin is nearly a net carbon neutral.
That result is a surprising one. As they did not expect the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission to be very high. According to one of the team member, Dr. Nicholas Ward, from the US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the research is able to measure the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission from inland waters, which previously has not been accounted properly.
The collaborative research on the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission has been published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. In the paper, scientists explain the comprehensive assessment they made on the concentration and evasion rate of CO2 along the lower Amazon River corridor and its major brooks, the Xingu and Tapajós rivers. The also include the measurement of evasive CO2 fluxes using floating chambers and gas transfer coefficients (k600).
The surprising result of the Amazon river carbon dioxide emission has shown a grim effect of the deforestation to the climate change. Moreover, for years Amazon forest has been known as a massive carbon sink to absorb carbon dioxide.
