Amazon fires can be catastrophic

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

Amazon fires can be catastrophic

A new study examines the impact of fires in the Amazon on climate change

The smoke curtain, which rises after the long-lasting fires in the Amazon, is likely to cause high-speed ice melting in the highlands of the Andes, whose volume has halved in recent years.

Brazilian and French researchers have come to the conclusion after linking individual events and analyzing a number of up-to-date and archived data and publishing the results in Nature Scientific Reports.

Increasing global forest fires are bad news for flora and fauna in forests, for humans, for biodiversity, for carbon cycling.

The new study develops previous theories and hypotheses about the negative impact of increasing forest fires on the life of the Earth and the melting of glaciers.

Mass biomass burning in the atmosphere releases particles, including black carbon, which absorb light, reduce the reflectivity of snow and stimulate it to melt faster.

To determine if the separation of these particles from the Amazon fires could adversely affect the Bolivian Zongo Glacier, the team led by Newton de Magalaes Neto of Rio de Janeiro State University examines data on forest fires, atmospheric emissions glacial particles, rains and melting, collected from 2000 to 2016.

 

Scientists have found that the lighter particles released into the atmosphere due to biomass burning can easily reach the Andes and land on the snow.

Researchers focus on 2007 and 2010, when forest fires escalate as a result of El Nino, which has caused enormous drought in the region.

Scientists conclude that particles separated from the burning of huge amounts of biomass can accelerate the melting of ice by up to 14% annually.

The team of De Magelaes Neto adds that the percentage may vary depending on the saturation of dust particles in the snow on the glaciers.

"Biomass burning in southwestern Amazon ... cannot be considered a regional problem," the study's authors warn.

"Instead, we have to understand that this has a continental scale effect."