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Published Online September 20, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1146663

Brevia

Submitted on June 18, 2007
Accepted on August 30, 2007

Amazon Forests Green-Up During 2005 Drought

Scott R. Saleska 1{dagger}*, Kamel Didan 2{dagger}, Alfredo R. Huete 2, Humberto R. da Rocha 3

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, Brazil.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Scott R. Saleska , E-mail: saleska{at}email.arizona.edu

{dagger}These authors contributed equally to this work.

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, though threatened by human-caused deforestation, fire, and possibly by more severe long-term droughts, may be more resilient to climate changes than ecosystem models assume.


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