Causes and impacts of the 2005 Amazon drought

A rare drought in the Amazon culminated in 2005, leading to near record-low streamflows, small Amazon river plume, and greatly enhanced fire frequency. This episode was caused by the combination of 2002–03 El Niño and a dry spell in 2005 attributable to a warm subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Analysis for 1979–2005 reveals that the Atlantic influence is comparable to the better-known Pacific linkage. While the Pacific influence is typically locked to the wet season, the 2005 Atlantic impact concentrated in the Amazon dry season when its hydroecosystem is most vulnerable. Such mechanisms may have wide-ranging implications for the future of the Amazon rainforest.

[1]  W. Knorr,et al.  A climate-change risk analysis for world ecosystems , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[2]  P. Yager,et al.  Physical and biological contributions to the western tropical North Atlantic Ocean carbon sink formed by the Amazon River plume , 2006 .

[3]  H. Su,et al.  Tropical drying trends in global warming models and observations. , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[4]  M. Hopkin.  Amazon hit by worst drought for 40 years , 2005 .

[5]  Ajit Subramaniam,et al.  Influence of the Amazon River on the surface optical properties of the western tropical North Atlantic Ocean , 2004 .

[6]  C. Deser,et al.  Pacific Interdecadal Climate Variability: Linkages between the Tropics and the North Pacific during Boreal Winter since 1900 , 2004 .

[7]  R. Betts,et al.  The role of ecosystem-atmosphere interactions in simulated Amazonian precipitation decrease and forest dieback under global climate warming , 2004 .

[8]  J. Marengo.  Interdecadal variability and trends of rainfall across the Amazon basin , 2004 .

[9]  Josyane Ronchail,et al.  Wavelet analysis of Amazon hydrological regime variability , 2004 .

[10]  J. Janowiak,et al.  The Version 2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979-Present) , 2003 .

[11]  Elizabeth C. Kent,et al.  Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century , 2003 .

[12]  Gérard Cochonneau,et al.  Interannual rainfall variability in the Amazon basin and sea‐surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific and the tropical Atlantic Oceans , 2002 .

[13]  M. Kanamitsu,et al.  NCEP–DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis (R-2) , 2002 .

[14]  John C. H. Chiang,et al.  Tropical tropospheric temperature variations caused by ENSO and their influence on the remote tropical climate , 2002 .

[15]  J. Janowiak,et al.  Global Land Precipitation: A 50-yr Monthly Analysis Based on Gauge Observations , 2002 .

[16]  R. Seager,et al.  The ENSO Teleconnection to the Tropical Atlantic Ocean: Contributions of the Remote and Local SSTs to Rainfall Variability in the Tropical Americas* , 2001 .

[17]  James W. Hurrell,et al.  North Atlantic climate variability: phenomena, impacts and mechanisms , 2001 .

[18]  Alberto M. Mestas-Nuñez,et al.  The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its relation to rainfall and river flows in the continental U.S. , 2001 .

[19]  R. Betts,et al.  Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model , 2000, Nature.

[20]  C. Uvo,et al.  Forecasting discharge in Amazonia using artificial neural networks , 2000 .

[21]  R A Kerr,et al.  A North Atlantic Climate Pacemaker for the Centuries , 2000, Science.

[22]  J. Janowiak,et al.  CAMS–OPI: A Global Satellite–Rain Gauge Merged Product for Real-Time Precipitation Monitoring Applications , 1999 .

[23]  Ning Zeng,et al.  Seasonal cycle and interannual variability in the Amazon hydrologic cycle , 1999 .

[24]  R. Vose,et al.  An Overview of the Global Historical Climatology Network Temperature Database , 1997 .

[25]  J. Wallace,et al.  A Pacific Interdecadal Climate Oscillation with Impacts on Salmon Production , 1997 .

[26]  P. Chang,et al.  A decadal climate variation in the tropical Atlantic Ocean from thermodynamic air-sea interactions , 1997, Nature.

[27]  D. Enfield,et al.  Tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability and its relation to El Niño‐Southern Oscillation , 1997 .

[28]  D. Enfield,et al.  Relationships of inter‐american rainfall to tropical Atlantic and Pacific SST variability , 1996 .

[29]  Paulo Nobre,et al.  Variations of Sea Surface Temperature, Wind Stress, and Rainfall over the Tropical Atlantic and South America. , 1996 .

[30]  Phillip A. Arkin,et al.  Analyses of Global Monthly Precipitation Using Gauge Observations, Satellite Estimates, and Numerical Model Predictions , 1996 .

[31]  Robert F. Adler,et al.  On the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) , 1996 .

[32]  S. Bigot,et al.  Rainfall variability in subequatorial America and Africa and relationships with the main sea‐surface temperature modes (1951–1990) , 1995 .

[33]  E. Davidson,et al.  The role of deep roots in the hydrological and carbon cycles of Amazonian forests and pastures , 1994, Nature.

[34]  Syukuro Manabe,et al.  Century-scale effects of increased atmospheric C02 on the ocean–atmosphere system , 1993, Nature.

[35]  J. Marengo,et al.  Interannual variability of surface climate in the Amazon basin , 1992 .

[36]  C. Ropelewski,et al.  Global and Regional Scale Precipitation Patterns Associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation , 1987 .

[37]  J. Shukla,et al.  On the Dynamics of Droughts in Northeast Brazil: Observations, Theory and Numerical Experiments with a General Circulation Model , 1981 .

[38]  M. Murakami.  Large-Scale Aspects of Deep Convective Activity over the GATE Area , 1979 .

[39]  B. Liebmann,et al.  Description of a complete (interpolated) outgoing longwave radiation dataset , 1996 .

[40]  T. McKee,et al.  THE RELATIONSHIP OF DROUGHT FREQUENCY AND DURATION TO TIME SCALES , 1993 .

[41]  S. Hastenrath,et al.  Dynamics of climatic hazards in northeast Brazil , 1977 .