A view of the Amazon river basin from space.

(NASA)

At a Glance

'Future multiyear droughts will be hotter—and thus more severe—than in the past.'The study highlights the need for resource managers to plan for future droughts in order to protect the Amazon's key benefits.

A warming climate and the ever-increasing likelihood of multi-year droughts may result inirreparable harm to the sustainabilityof the Amazon rainforest, a new study says.

Researchers for a study published inWater Resources Research say evidence suggeststhe of the Amazon rainforestand the services it provides, including biodiversity, water cycling, carbon captureand others, may require adaptive management strategies to , according to a press release.

The study noted that the Amazon basin has, in recent years, experienced multiple “once‐in‐a‐century” droughts, impactingthe region's water cycle, economy, vegetationand carbon storage.

The record does not go back far enough to determine whether the recent droughts are abnormal in the bigger picture, so the researchers set out to use other means to determine whether the recent droughts are out of the ordinary.

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They studied core sediments collected fromLake Limón in the Peruvian Amazon andidentified 31 dry periods over 1,400 years, which is about simulated by climate models over a similar time period, according to a press release.

“Drought variability in the Amazon is much greater than currently thought,” said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability and one of the study’s authors.

“Whereas the longest drought in the rain-gauge record is a year, the paleoclimate record shows that droughts of many years—and even some that span more than a decade—have occurred in the recent past,” he said.

The researchers say droughts will only worsen with climate change and say the study highlights the need for resource managers to plan for future droughts in order to protect the Amazon's precious resources.

“Future multiyear droughts will be hotter—and thus more severe—than in the past," said Overpeck. "And with the Amazon’s growing population, wildfires become a real threat during times of drought. We hope that forest managers can better prepare for these scenarios when they know the long-term drought history of the region.”