New views on an old forest: assessing the longevity, resilience and future of the Amazon rainforest

  1. Mark Maslin1,
  2. Yadvinder Malhi2,
  3. Oliver Phillips3,
  4. Sharon Cowling4

Article first published online: 13 DEC 2005

DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2005.00181.x

Issue

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

Volume 30, Issue 4, pages 477–499, December 2005

Additional Information

How to Cite

Maslin, M., Malhi, Y., Phillips, O. and Cowling, S. (2005), New views on an old forest: assessing the longevity, resilience and future of the Amazon rainforest. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 30: 477–499. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2005.00181.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Environmental Change Research Centre, Department of Geography, University College London, London WC1H 0AP email: mmaslin@geog.ucl.ac.uk

  2. 2

    School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3TB

  3. 3

    Earth and Biosphere Institute, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT

  4. 4

    Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G3

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 13 DEC 2005
  2. Article first published online: 13 DEC 2005
  3. revised manuscript received 18 August 2005

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Keywords:

  • Amazon rainforest;
  • Cenozoic;
  • Quaternary;
  • precession;
  • refuge

The aim of this paper is to investigate the longevity and diversity of the Amazonian rainforest and to assess its likely future. Palaeoclimate and palaeoecological records suggest that the Amazon rainforest originated in the late Cretaceous and has been a permanent feature of South America for at least the last 55 million years. The Amazon rainforest has survived the high temperatures of the Early Eocene climate optimum, the gradual Cenozoic cooling, and the drier and lower carbon dioxide levels of the Quaternary glacial periods. Two new theories for the great diversity of the Amazon rainforest are discussed – the canopy density hypothesis and the precessional-forced seasonality hypothesis. We suggest the Amazon rainforest should not be viewed as a geologically ephemeral feature of South America, but rather as a constant feature of the global Cenozoic biosphere. The forest is now, however, entering a set of climatic conditions with no past analogue. The predicted future hotter and more arid tropical climates may have a disastrous effect on the Amazon rainforest.

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