New Study Shows Burned Amazon Forests Face Decades of Heat Stress After Fire

BAERI’s Savannah Cooley is lead author on a recent paper that quantifies the long-term thermal stress on forests in the Brazilian Amazon after fire, with effects lasting decades.

Cooley and her co-authors found that fire-damaged forests in the Brazilian Amazon stay about 2.6 °C (4.7 °F) hotter than their neighboring intact or selectively logged forest areas. This heat isn’t just temporary. It can linger for at least 30 years and has direct impacts on the forest’s ability to recover. 

The study was published last month in the journal Environmental Research Letters, and featured in Columbia Climate School’s State of the Planet. Read the full feature article here.