Amazon Basin GHG Release Estimates Far Too Low - Researchers - Reuters

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BRASILIA, Brazil — "Many estimates of the amount of greenhouse gas given off by burning and deforestation in the Amazon are far too low because they fail to take account of gas released by rotting vegetation, researchers resported to a deforestation conference this week. Scientists from Brazil's National Institute of Amazon Research said about 400 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent were emitted in 2003 — 60 percent more than one estimate by other scientists at the conference.

"It's emitting much more than it is absorbing," said Philip Fearnside, a researcher at the institute, challenging a view presented to the conference on Wednesday that the jungle is a small net producer of oxygen.

The conference is discussing the findings of the Large Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, the world's biggest study of jungle deforestation. It started in 1998 and is being conducted by Brazilian and foreign organizations, including the U.S. space agency NASA.

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Fearnside said that hydroelectric dams in the Amazon, for instance, should be included because rotting trees in flooded areas release methane gas. The Amazon's four dams produced more emissions between them than Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, he said. But Carlos Nobre of Brazil's National Institute of Space Research disputed Fearnside's theory. "His number is not believable," said Nobre, who estimated Amazon burning produced 250 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent last year."

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http://www.enn.com/news/2004-07-30/s_26314.asp