Amazon Rainforest Nearing Dangerous Environmental 'Tipping Point'; Trees May Die Off en Masse - Researchers

Amazon rainforest is losing its ability to bounce back from damage caused by droughts, fires, and deforestation with researchers noting that it is nearing a "tipping point" where trees may die off altogether.

Previous studies have shown that parts of the Amazon rainforest are now releasing more carbon dioxide than can be absorbed, according to a BBC News report.

Dr. Chris Boulton of the University of Exeter said that the trees are losing health and could be approaching a tipping point, which is basically a mass loss of trees.

More than 75 percent of the rainforest has shown signs of a loss of resilience, with trees taking longer to recover from the effects driven by climate change and human-made causes such as deforestation and fires.

Scientists noted that a cycle of damage could cause "dieback." They projected that it could be a matter of decades before a huge part of the Amazon is transformed into a savannah.

Boulton said that stopping deforestation would go some way to addressing the problem.

Amazon Rainforest at Tipping Point

More droughts will cause more trees to die, with wildfires seeing to grow more severe, which would wipe huge part of forests at time, according to a Scientific American report.

Amazon rainforest is just one of the many possible tipping points in the Earth's climate system.

The study also showed that human land use is taking a huge effect on Amazon.

Meanwhile, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets may have also reached their own dangerous thresholds.

Scientists warned about unstoppable ice loss and the risk of ice sheet collapse, adding that such a scenario would cause global sea levels to be apocalyptic.

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is also slowing down as the planet warms. It is considered to be one of the world's largest ocean currents.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's recent report noted that there is a lot of uncertainty about the Earth's tipping points, as well as a lot of debate about how much warming it would take to actually cross them.

Professor Niklas Boers, at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, said that many researchers have theorized that an Amazon tipping point could be reached.

Boers, however, said that their study shows empirical evidence that the planet is reaching that threshold.

Boers added that the Amazon is "definitely one the fastest" of the tipping elements in the climate system.

The research had examined satellite data on the amount of vegetation in more than 6,000 grid cells across the untouched Amazon from 1991 to 2016, according to The Guardian report.

Areas closer to human destruction of the forest became more unstable.

Boers then said that the data indicated that the tipping point has not yet been crossed, adding that there is still hope.

Chris Jones, at the Met Office Hadley Centre in the U.K., said that research adds compelling evidence that climate change is a risk now, with severe and irreversible effects that could become a reality.

Jones said that "we have a narrow window of opportunity" to immediately address the situation.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by Mary Webber

WATCH: How Amazon deforestation could push the climate to a 'tipping point' - from PBS NewsHour