Heat and drought in Brazil: How climate change is changing life in the Amazon

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The Rio Solimões near Tefé - the extreme drought in the region is affecting the river; large parts of it have dried up

Photo: Dado Galdieri / Hilaea Media

On a morning in October 2023, Jochen Schöngart stands on a rocky outcrop on the edge of the Amazon River, just a short water taxi ride from Manaus in northwestern Brazil. With his forehead bathed in sweat, he looks at faces that were probably carved in stone 2,000 years ago.

The spectacular find from pre-colonial times is a result of extreme drought. Researchers say the conditions for this will become more common as a result of climate change and could provide a hint of what's to come. Because what otherwise lies hidden beneath the surface of the water became visible due to the exceptionally low water level of the Amazon river during the dry season.

Brazil suffered from periods of severe heat and drought last year. In October 2023, the Rio Negro, the second largest tributary of the Amazon, reached its lowest level in the port of Manaus since records began in 1902. Instead of half a meter, only a few millimeters of rain fell here.

This has had consequences for local people: across the Brazilian Amazon, low river levels have resulted in the isolation of hundreds of riverine communities. Cargo ships, Manaus' main source of supplies, were unable to continue due to the shoals in the Amazon. Factories furloughed workers, fish died in droves and access to drinking water was no longer guaranteed in some places.

Heat and drought – that doesn’t describe all the problems. Jochen Schöngart, a forest scientist at the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), and his colleagues have been monitoring the river for some time. For decades, low water levels have been falling in the dry season while flood waters have been rising in the rainy season. “We are experiencing massive changes in the water cycle of the Amazon basin,” says Schöngart. Global warming could increase this. The question now is whether ecosystems and people can adapt.

On the road with Ayan Fleischmann in Tefé, around 600 kilometers upriver from Manaus, in a region that is one of the hardest hit by the drought. The boat heads toward what looks like the remains of a fence post jutting out of the water at an angle. Hardly anyone would suspect that this is a temperature measuring station. That's intentional, says the hydrologist at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development. “We hung it on a pole like this so that no one would think it was important,” says Fleischmann, grinning. Otherwise, the collection of important data could be disrupted by the measuring station being pulled out of the water or stolen out of curiosity.

Not far from here, several scientists are standing on the bank in protective suits, wearing rubber gloves and masks. The stench of rotting flesh is pervasive: on the table lies a female tucuxi (

Sotalia fluviatilis

), a species of freshwater dolphin that lives here.

Mariana Lobato is standing in the makeshift tent, cutting open the dolphin's abdomen with a scalpel. “We measure the fat,” she explains, pointing to a cream-colored layer as thick as her thumb. The abundant fat suggests that this Tucuxi did not starve to death.

More than 200 dead dolphins, about 15 percent of Lake Tefé's population, were discovered in the lake in October and fall 2023. »This was something we never expected. “That hit me really hard,” says Miriam Marmontel, who heads the marine mammal research group at the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development. She and her team found no evidence of an infectious disease or a toxin.

Rather, the researchers see a connection with the heat wave. “We believe that climate change is the main culprit,” says Marmontel. That worries her because it is the only scenario for which there is no local solution.

The heat had led to a sharp rise in water temperatures during the recent dry season. No temperature of more than 33 °C has yet been measured in Lake Tefé. At the end of September it rose to 40°C, probably too high for the freshwater dolphins.

The high water temperatures also become a problem for fish. An INPA research team has found that fish from the Amazon region cannot tolerate temperatures higher than 35°C to 37°C. “An additional degree may not seem like much, but it makes a big difference,” explains Alexandre Pucci Hercos, head of the fish biology group in Mamirauá. The result: Some fish species die, others migrate.

Manaus and Tefé are located in the middle of the Amazon region; the Amazon and its tributaries provide a source of livelihood for many of the people living there. But what are the consequences if water levels reach their lowest level since measurements began, if rivers dry up completely or overflow their banks to such an extent that even entire villages and forests are flooded for a long period of time?

"If the drought continues, we fear that we will run out of food," says Márcio da Silva Santos, the

Tuxaua,

chief of the indigenous village of Betel.

Betel is located directly on the Amazon River. But Santos has given up on fishing this season. The competition from commercial fishermen who previously fished in Lake Tefé is too great. The water there has become too warm and dolphins, who have fewer territories because of the low water level, are tearing open their fishing nets to get to their prey.

Pacu, piranha and curimatã are on his Kambeba tribe's fishing wish list

.

But before the fishermen can cast their nets, they now have a long road ahead of them. They carry their handmade wooden canoe down 130 steps of concrete and hard-packed earth to the Amazon River, transport it on a motorboat to the opposite bank of the river and drag it through the jungle until they reach a small lake.

The indigenous village of Porto Praia, located downstream from Betel, was hit even harder. In this area, the Amazon river dried up in September last year. What remains are meter-high sand dunes. Ayan Fleischmann from the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development calls such river sections that have emerged the “Sahara on the Amazon.”

Their origin is due to dry seasons with less precipitation and rainy seasons that are wetter. In the headwaters, extreme rainfall causes river banks to erode. The removed earth is carried along by the river until its current subsides - like here in front of Porto Praia.

The dry riverbed has serious consequences for the villagers. The only option to quickly reach Porto Praia by boat is no longer available. The village school is closed, the walk is too far for the teachers from Tefé who commute. Because it is too strenuous to drag fishing equipment over the dunes in the heat during the day, fishing has to be done at night.

A study recently published by World Weather Attribution shows that already vulnerable population groups were disproportionately affected by the drought. These include small farmers and indigenous communities who are particularly dependent on the availability of fresh water for their food production and the transport of goods across rivers.

The climate researchers have also calculated that climate change has increased the probability of precipitation as low as that in the Amazon basin by a factor of ten in 2023.

The

Tuxaua

of Betel Márcio da Silva Santos invites the reporters to dinner to say goodbye. He explains that he is worried about the next dry spell, about the future in general, as he skewers a jaraqui, a fish the size of a dinner plate, and holds it over the fire.

Interpreter Diana Mayra Köhler knows an indigenous saying: “Comeu jaraqui, nao sai mais daqui,” translated: “Once you have eaten jaraqui, you never want to leave here again.”

Santos would never want to leave here, give up the life of his ancestors. But he fears that there could soon be conflicts with other villages over fishing. "This is a difficult situation for us."

A version of the report first appeared in the science magazine Science, co-financed by the Pulitzer Center.

Translation and editing: Fabius Leibrock

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