UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Detected Shifts Towards Drought‐Adaptive Strategies in the Amazon Forest Over the Last Four Decades

Identification

Public canonical key

radar:r-7ac8dde7debad47ffca3caa6d1c8b0fa

Authors

Milton Darío García Barbosa · Renata A Maia · Imma Oliveras Menor · Ben Hur Marimon-Junior · Beatriz Schwantes Marimon · Geraldo Wilson Fernandes · Yadvinder Singh Malhi · Jesús Aguirre‐Gutiérrez

Reported year

2026

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-14T02:47:16.853637+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-14T02:47:16.853637+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais · University of Oxford · Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement · Université de Montpellier · Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement · UMR Botanique et Modélisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des végétations · Institut de Recherche pour le Développement · Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso

Reported affiliation countries

BR · FR · GB

Documentary abstract — original language

The Amazon Forest is undergoing rapid ecological shifts driven by intensifying drought, rising temperatures, and widespread anthropogenic disturbance. Yet the reorganization of vegetation functional strategies under climate stress remains poorly quantified at the biome scale. Here, we show that the temporal stability of canopy reflectance offers a sensitive remote proxy for sclerophylly-leaf toughness, a key indicator of conservative, drought-adaptive plant strategies. By integrating ground-based trait data (specific leaf area, SLA) from over 3000 trees across 448 plots in the Amazon-Cerrado savanna transition zone with high-resolution remote sensing imagery, we demonstrate that lower SLA-a well-established proxy for conservative leaf strategies-is associated with reduced dry-season variability in the blue band spectral reflectance of vegetation. Extending the analysis across 130 plots in nine Amazonian countries using 40 years of harmonised remote sensing data, we find that dry-season reflectance variability has declined by ~34% (a drop of ~10 percentage points) since 1984, indicating a biome-wide shift toward greater drought tolerance. This trend is most pronounced in the southern and eastern Amazon and closely tracks rising climate stress, particularly increased temperature, evaporative demand, and water deficit. If these patterns persist, much of the southern and eastern Amazon could reach reflectance-stability levels comparable to transitional zones with the Cerrado savanna biome within the next three to four decades. Our results show signals of an early-stage forest functional transformation that could reduce forest productivity and carbon uptake, increase vulnerability to fire, and diminish biodiversity. These findings highlight regions where early signs of reduced forest resilience are emerging, underscoring the need for spatially targeted conservation.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

https://openalex.org/W7127600235

DOI

10.1111/gcb.70727

PMID

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41636072

PMCID

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/12869351

Documentary context

Documentary family

article

Source-reported types

article

Publishers

Wiley

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1

• Document · https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70727

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.