Text II
A river in flux
MANAUS, BRAZIL—Jochen Schöngart darts back and forth
along an escarpment just above the Amazon River, a short water
taxi ride from downtown Manaus, Brazil. It’s still early this October
morning in 2023, but it’s already hot and his face is beaded with
sweat. “Look, there’s a piece of ceramic!” he says, nodding to a
worn shard lodged between boulders, likely a relic of an earlier
civilization. It’s not the only one.
Schöngart, a forest scientist at the National Institute of
Amazon Research (INPA), stoops and stares at the bedrock at his
feet. Well below the river’s normal level for this time of year, the
rock bears a gallery of life-size faces, perhaps carved during a
megadrought 1000 years ago. Now, they have been exposed again
by a new drought, the worst in the region’s modern history.
In the previous 4 months, only a few millimeters of rain have
fallen in this city of 2 million at the confluence of the Negro and
Amazon rivers. Normally it gets close to a half a meter during the
same period. The Amazon sank steadily beginning in June, as it
does most years during the dry season. But by mid-October, the
port’s river gauge reached the lowest level observed since the
record began in 1902. Freighters coming up from the Atlantic
Ocean—the city’s primary supply line—were blocked by shoals.
Factories furloughed workers.
Making matters worse, the drought coincided with a series of
week-long heat waves. In September and October, withering
conditions persisted across the Amazon, and temperatures here
peaked at 39°C, 6°C above normal. Desiccated jungle set ablaze by
farmers enveloped the city in choking smoke. Then, in the season’s
most freakish episode, a sandstorm blotted out the Sun.
Drought and heat are only half of the story of the changes
unfolding in the heart of the world’s largest rainforest. Schöngart
and collaborators’ research on the river here has shown that for
decades, while dry-season low water has been plummeting, rainyseason high water has been rising. The city has experienced
frequent major flooding in recent years because of heavy rains
across much of the Amazon Basin, forcing the officials to erect
temporary wooden walkways above streets of the historic
waterfront.
Schöngart and other researchers expect such changes to
intensify as global climate warms. The current drought provided a
grim preview, killing river dolphins and fish, and threatening
livelihoods for communities along the river. If the combination of
higher highs and lower lows becomes the new norm, the
ramifications could extend throughout the Amazon Basin and even
beyond, threatening the very existence of the forest—which
harbors much of the planet’s biodiversity, has a far-reaching
influence over regional and global climate, and sustains millions of
people.
“We are undergoing massive changes in the hydrological
cycle” of the Amazon Basin, Schöngart says. The question now, he
says, is whether its ecosystems and people can adapt.
Adapted from: https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-river-may-alteredforever-climate-change