Abstract
Smoke from vegetation fires affects air quality, atmospheric cycling, and the climate in the Amazon rain forest. A major unknown has remained the quantity of long-range transported smoke from Africa in relation to local and regional fire emissions. Here we quantify the abundance, seasonality, and properties of African smoke in central Amazonia. We show that it accounts for 60 % of the black carbon concentrations during the wet season and 30 % during the dry season. The African smoke influences aerosol-radiation interactions across the entire Amazon, with the strongest impact on the vulnerable eastern basin, a hot spot of climate and land use change. Our findings further suggest that the direct influence of African smoke has been historically relevant for soil fertilization, the carbon and water cycles, and, thus, the development of the Amazon forest ecosystem, even in the pre-industrial era.
Citation
@article{Holanda2023,
title = {African biomass burning affects aerosol cycling over the {Amazon}},
volume = {4},
copyright = {All rights reserved},
issn = {2662-4435},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00795-5},
doi = {10.1038/s43247-023-00795-5},
language = {en},
number = {1},
journal = {Communications Earth \& Environment},
author = {Holanda, Bruna A. and Franco, Marco A. and Walter, David and Artaxo, Paulo and Carbone, Samara and Cheng, Yafang and Chowdhury, Sourangsu and Ditas, Florian and Gysel-Beer, Martin and Klimach, Thomas and Kremper, Leslie A. and Krüger, Ovid O. and Lavric, Jost V. and Lelieveld, Jos and Ma, Chaoqun and Machado, Luiz A. T. and Modini, Robin L. and Morais, Fernando G. and Pozzer, Andrea and Saturno, Jorge and Su, Hang and Wendisch, Manfred and Wolff, Stefan and Pöhlker, Mira L. and Andreae, Meinrat O. and Pöschl, Ulrich and Pöhlker, Christopher},
month = may,
year = {2023},
pages = {154},
}