Tipping Points in Tropical Forests: Carbon fluxes in the Amazon and Africa
by Emily Jack-Scott, Aspen Global Change Institute
July 2021 Research Review
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is preparing to release the Sixth Assessment Report of how the climate has already changed and what we can anticipate in coming decades. Unlike past reports, this one will detail regional climate change and impacts as well as “tipping points,” which can trigger natural processes to transform into dramatically different and likely irreversible states. One such critical tipping point is the potential transformation of the world’s largest tropical forests from carbon sinks into net sources of carbon emissions. What does the latest research say about how long can tropical forests remain one of Earth’s greatest carbon sinks? How is climate change affecting this capacity?
- Will Tropical Forests Slow or Accelerate Climate Change?
- Modeling Tropical Forest Response to a Changing Climate System
- Tropical Forest Management for Climate Change Mitigation, Sustainable Development and Biodiversity Conservation: Are We Dreaming?
- Saving Tropical Forests
- Tropical Forests and Global Change: Science & Policy Disconnects
- Landsat Pathfinder Humid Tropical Forest Project
- Tropical Forest - Climate Connection: Comparing Model Projections to Local Realities in Chiapas, Mexico