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Originally published in Science Express on 20 September 2007
Science 26 October 2007:
Vol. 318. no. 5850, p. 612
DOI: 10.1126/science.1146663
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Brevia

Amazon Forests Green-Up During 2005 Drought

Scott R. Saleska,1*{dagger} Kamel Didan,2* Alfredo R. Huete,2 Humberto R. da Rocha3

Coupled climate-carbon cycle models suggest that Amazon forests are vulnerable to both long- and short-term droughts, but satellite observations showed a large-scale photosynthetic green-up in intact evergreen forests of the Amazon in response to a short, intense drought in 2005. These findings suggest that Amazon forests, although threatened by human-caused deforestation and fire and possibly by more severe long-term droughts, may be more resilient to climate changes than ecosystem models assume.

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
2 Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
3 Department of Atmospheric Science, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP Brasil Cep 05508-090.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: saleska{at}email.arizona.edu

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