Carbon uptake by mature Amazon forests has mitigated Amazon nations’ carbon emissions

Table 1 Net C fluxes for the Amazon basin 1980–2009.9, displayed decade by decade

Period	Mature forest Sink	Land use change	Fossil fuel emissions	Net flux
1980–1989.9	−504.4	317.9	105.2	−81.3
1990–1999.9	−482.1	271.7	139.5	−70.8
2000–2009.9	−305.9	275.4	180.0	149.5
1980–2009.9	−430.8	282.9	149.0	1.1

Fluxes are divided into carbon uptake by mature forests, the fossil fuel emissions, fluxes due to land use change and the resulting net flux. Land use change fluxes include emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation, and estimate for regrowth. Negative signs indicate removal of carbon from atmosphere, and positive signs indicate net C fluxes from land to the atmosphere. Units are in Tg carbon per year (=10¹² g C yr⁻¹)

ISSN: 1750-0680