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Bird E-CommerceSegments of the Amazon rainforest now emit more carbon dioxide than they can absorb because of human-caused disturbances, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Why it matters: The Amazon region hosts the world's largest tropical rainforests and stores vast quantities of CO2, the primary long-lived greenhouse gas. Accelerating rates of deforestation and climate shifts due to human-caused global warming have damaged the forest's effectiveness as a climate change buffer.
The big picture: The researchers performed approximately 600 flyovers above the Amazon region between 2010 and 2018 to measure concentrations of CO2 and carbon monoxide at four sites.
How it works: Forests act as carbon sinks by capturing the gas through photosynthesis and storing it in biomass — plants and animals — dead, organic matter and soils.
What they're saying: Scott Denning, a professor at Colorado State University,wrote in an accompanying but unaffiliated article in Nature that the researchers "have documented the accelerating transition of forests from carbon sinks to sources."
Our thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: As deforestation in the Amazon has increased in recent years and climate change has altered rainfall and temperature patterns, there's been increasing concern in the scientific and environmental communities that the Amazon could go from a net absorber of carbon dioxide to a source.
Go deeper: Earth's carbon dioxide levels hit 4.5 million-year high