The Amazon forest and the rain

Abstract

The article "The Amazon Forest and the rain" shows that the average annual rainfall is the main weather variable for the forestry sector in the Amazon. The average annual temperature has little variation in the Amazon; only 8%. The average annual rainfall has a greater variation, almost 100%. The growth and increment of Amazonian trees show significant correlations with precipitation. The interannual precipitation presents stronger signals than the intraannual one to explain these correlations. Only the growth and increment of trees are not enought to determine whether the forest is sequestering or emitting carbon. Mortality and recruitment rates play an important role to estimate this balance. These rates have intrinsic relationships with rainfall. The lack or excess of rain influence, mainly, mortality rates. On a regional scale, the lack of rain has contributed to the increased mortality of tropical rainforest trees; in the range of communities is the heavy rainfall that contributes to increased mortality. This article presents the results of two occurrences of weather phenomena in the same year, which reached the Amazon region. In community scale, using three permanent plots (1 ha), results are analyzed to gauge the effects of both phenomena in the forest.