Amazon rainforest is losing its ability to recover from destruction

A leading scientist warns of a "catastrophic tipping point" for the Amazon rainforest after using two decades of satellite data.

More than three-quarters of the world's largest rainforest has lost its resilience to damaging events since the early 2000s.

Satellite information was used to track changes in the Amazon over the course of 25 years.

The disappearance of carbon-storing trees and the potential for more fires are consequences of a transformation of the Amazon into a hotter, drier grassland. South America would probably see more severe and frequent droughts.

Tim Lenton, director of the Global Systems, said that it was alarming to think that we were heading towards the potential abrupt loss of this ecosystems.

A tipping point is when feedback loops become so strong that they start propelling themselves independently of the initial cause, triggering the system to change state. This is often irreversible.

In the Amazon, the cycle is set off by the logging of trees that reduces the amount of water in the rainforest, and in turn results in the loss of trees because of the lack of rain.

Warming temperatures and a dry climate in the region amplify this vicious cycle. When the rainforest could no longer regenerate itself, it would collapse into a dry savannah.

Lenton said that you can stop it if you take one or several trees out.

Large parts of the Amazon could soon experience widespread dieback according to the study. The tipping point is 10 to 20 years away, according to some experts. Since the pre-industrial era, temperatures have risen by at least 1.1C.

Lenton said that he was already concerned about the risks from several climate tipping points. It is home to some very special indigenous human populations as well.

The researchers said that the Amazon's resilience had dropped in the past. They said that despite climate change, the average rainfall in the Amazon had not changed much.

The study found that resilience is being lost faster in parts of the Amazon nearest to human activity.

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