Amazon showing signs of degradation due to climate change, Nasa warns

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/18/amazon-rainforest-climate-change-nasa?intcmp=122


The megadrought in the Amazon rainforest during the summer of 2005 caused widespread damage and die-offs to trees, as depicted in this photo taken in western Amazonia in Brazil. Photograph: JPL-Caltech/Nasa

The US space agency Nasa warned this week that the Amazon rainforest may be showing the first signs of large-scale degradation due to climate change.

A team of scientists led by the agency found that an area twice the size of California continues to suffer from a mega-drought that began eight years ago.

The new study shows the severe dry spell in 2005 caused far wider damage than previously estimated and its impact persisted longer than expected until an even harsher drought in 2010.

With little time for the trees to recover between what the authors describe as a "double whammy", 70m hectares of forest have been severely affected, the analysis of 10 years of satellite microwave radar data revealed.