Rainforest Gets Greener During a Drought

During the drought in the Amazon Rainforest in 2005, many areas actually got greener. Researcher Scott Saleska, of the University of Arizona, explained

"And what we saw was that there was more photosynthesis going on, more capacity to take up carbon dioxide than in an average year"

While this drought was not prolonged, there is no evidence that such results would continue if there were a prolonged drought. People believed that that stressed trees in drought conditions would try to conserve their water by decreasing loss through leaves (transpiration). This in turn would lead to a decrease photosynthesis.
People then believed that the drought be made worse since there was an interuptionby the supply of water into the atmosphere.

It appears that the trees roots were able to obtain water deep underground, much further than the models predicted they could. However more frequent droughts or climate changes could deplete the deep-water stores, thus thwarting the trees ability to survive a drought.

Tags: drought, amazon rain forest, photosynthesis