African tropical forests hard hit by the El Niño phenomenon

A tropical forest in Cameroon (illustration image). Photo by DeAgostini / Getty Images

Text by: RFI Follow

African rainforests are suffering. This is the result of a study published in the journal Science Advances. French researchers from CEA and INRAE ​​have indeed studied how these forests were affected by the El Niño climate phenomenon of 2015-2016.

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El Niño is a climatic phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years, bringing with it periods of drought. The latest was in 2015-2016 and the purpose of this research was to determine how the African forests had absorbed the shock, and especially how they recovered.

Unfortunately, the answer is: wrong. Despite the milder conditions since. Tropical forests have continued to lose biomass.

" The forests in Central Africa, for several decades, have been subjected to more drought , so they were already perhaps more vulnerable and if the biomass does not recover, it suggests that there is more mortality, explains Philippe Ciais, from the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE) . There are trees that are dead. Obviously when there are many trees, especially when large trees are dying in a forest, the total biomass cannot be recovered in one or two years. If in another five years there is an extreme drought, then there will inevitably be a kind of loss spiral. That is, with more El Niño, as all climate models predict, or more extreme and intense El Niño, gradually, insidiously, there will be more loss, less recovery and blow at the end necessarily a loss of biomass. "

This loss of biomass is not unique to Africa, even if it represents the majority. South America is the other continent hit by this phenomenon.

► Read the study: Science Advances

► Read also: The past four years, the hottest since the surveys began

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  • Environment
  • biodiversity
  • Weather

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