Drought Resilience Debt Drives NPP Decline in the Amazon Forest

Climate change has substantially increased the frequency of extreme droughts in Amazon basin, generating concern about impacts on world's largest tropical forest, which contributes one-seventh global vegetation carbon sink. Most research to understand drought focused immediate influences such events, neglecting post-drought effects ecosystems recovery. Since ecological processes are influenced by antecedent conditions, we analyzed whether affect growth (i.e., net primary productivity, NPP) Here, evaluated NPP basin from 2003 2020, a period was almost double decadal incidence last century. We show that does respond coupled individual and during ecosystem In particular, our results reveal undergoing recovery 13% lower than reference values based pre-drought state or areas undisturbed drought. deficits have consistently with 2005, 2010, 2015 due combined disturbances magnitude length If expected increase intensity occur, reduced may lead Forest an alternative uptake, contributing warming climate.