Carbon sink to source: Amazon rainforest emitting more CO2 than it absorbs, says study

The Amazon rainforest in South America was one of Earth’s principal absorbers of carbon dioxide  or carbon sink. However, a new study says that part of the rainforest is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is soaking up, thus becoming a carbon source.

A team of researchers from different countries have said this area is on the eastern side of the Amazon, which covers around 20 percent of the rainforest basin, as per a study published in Nature Communications journal on July 14.

This land carbon sink in the largest tropical forests, called Amazonia, has been absorbing roughly a quarter of all fossil fuel emissions since 1960, researchers said.