Carbon Dioxide

Water in the Amazon contains high levels of Carbon Dioxide, but studies show that this is being released into the atmosphere as a high rate, maybe as high as that caused by respiration of organisms in the soil. The waters gain the carbon dioxide from organic matter living in the water, or taken away by the water during floods, then released later into the atmosphere or to the Oceans, but measurements show that 13 times more carbon is removed from the Amazon by carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere, than by transport of organic Carbon. There has been considerable research into the issue of the Amazon acting as a Carbon sink. The research aims to discover whether the Amazon absorbs more Carbon dioxide than it gives out, or whether the reverse is true. As much as 8-9 Petagrams (x 1000,000,000,000,000) of carbon dioxide are being emitted by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, 25% of this is being absorbed by oceans and 50% remains in the atmosphere, which suggests that the forest absorbs the remaining 2 or so Petagrams. Some studies have ignored the absorbing effect of the waters of the Amazon, and therefore have produced falsified data which suggest a high carbon accumulation figure in the terrestial Amazon.

This has important meaning to our project. Focussing on excess carbon absorption by the Amazon may be superfluous if the waters aid in its control. We would then have to focus more on ensuring that the emissions do not increase past a level manageable by the entire Amazon system (including the waters), rather than attempting to reduce the emissions currently measured. The situation may not be bad as it first seemed.
 
 

---Sources:

John Grace and Yadvinder Malhi, 2002, "Carbon dioxide goes with the flow", Nature Magazine.

Colin Prentice and Jon Loyd, 1998, "C-quest in the Amazon Basin", Nature Magazine.

Jeffrey Richey et al., 2002, "Outgassing the Amazon rivers and wetlands, as a large tropical source of Carbon Dioxide", Nature Magazine.
 
 

Ryan F Allard(Class of 2006)

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