Amazon rainforest

November 6, 2025 12:28 PM

Scientists in Brazil starve trees of water to test Amazon’s limits

Under Brazil's Amazon rainforest canopy, hundreds of transparent plastic panels hang between tree trunks to starve a hectare of land of half the water it normally receives. Scientists are creating this artificial drought in Querencia municipality close to the southeastern edge of the world's largest rainforest to better understand the limits of the Amazon's resistance to extreme dry conditions that are predicted by climate change models. In the experiment, called Seca Limite, or Limit Drought,...

September 14, 2024 2:29 PM

A continent ablaze: South America surpasses record for fires

South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil's Amazon rainforest through the world's largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to Sept. 11. Satellite data analyzed by Brazil's space research agency Inpe has registered 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all 13 countries of South America, topping the earlier 2007 record of 345,322 hotspots in a data series that goes back to 1998. A Reuters photographer traveling...

September 11, 2024 5:53 PM

Nearly 40% of Amazon rainforest most vital to climate left unprotected, data show

Scientists agree that preserving the Amazon rainforest is vital to combating global warming, but new data on Wednesday indicate huge swathes of the jungle that are most vital to the world's climate remain unprotected. Nearly 40% of the areas of the Amazon rainforest most critical to curbing climate change have not been granted special government protection, as either nature or indigenous reserves, according to an analysis by nonprofit Amazon Conservation. The areas lie in the far southwest of ...