---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '21233'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Potential self-perpetuating dieback of the Amazon rain forest has been a topic
    of concern. The concern is that initial deforestation could critically impair
    the forest’s water recycling capacities, further harming the remaining forest
    through reduced annual precipitation. Many studies have focused on annual mean
    precipitation changes, due to its widespread perception as a central control on
    the Amazon rain forest’s stability. However, the impact of deforestation goes
    beyond changes in the annual mean precipitation. Yet, global coarse-resolution
    climate models are not well suited to investigate changes in short-duration and
    localized events due to their coarse resolution. Here, we circumvent these issues
    by analyzing a full-deforestation scenario simulated by a global storm-resolving
    model. We focus on changes in the tail of the hourly distribution of precipitation,
    temperature, and wind. Hourly precipitation becomes more extreme in the absence
    of the forest than in an intact forest, with an increased occurrence of both no
    rain and intense rainfall. These changes are driven by enhanced moisture convergence
    that strengthens vertical velocity. On average, the near-surface temperature rises
    significantly by about 3.84 °C, and the daily minimum temperature after deforestation
    becomes similar to the daily maximum temperature before deforestation. Except
    for wet-bulb temperature, human heat stress indicators shift to more severe levels,
    with implications for health and a significant reduction in work productivity.
    Finally, the mean 10 m wind speed intensifies by a factor of four, with the 99th
    percentile wind speed doubling. To summarize, our findings, while based on an
    idealized case, provide a stark warning of the effects of continuing deforestation
    of the Amazon.
acknowledgement: AY acknowledges funding by the CLICCS centre of excellence subproject
  A3 funded by DFG. We thank the German Climate Computing Center DKRZ for providing
  computing resources and the Integrated Climate Data Center (ICDC), the Center for
  Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), University of Hamburg, for supporting
  the IMERG data. In addition, we would like to thank Jana Sillmann for suggesting
  the analysis of heat stress indices and Keno Riechers for providing a thorough internal
  review of the initial manuscript at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Open
  Access funding is enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This research has been
  supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant no. CLICCS 390683824 (A3)).
  The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by
  the Max Planck Society.
article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal)
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Arim
  full_name: Yoon, Arim
  last_name: Yoon
- first_name: Cathy
  full_name: Hohenegger, Cathy
  last_name: Hohenegger
- first_name: Jiawei
  full_name: Bao, Jiawei
  id: bb9a7399-fefd-11ed-be3c-ae648fd1d160
  last_name: Bao
- first_name: Lukas
  full_name: Brunner, Lukas
  last_name: Brunner
citation:
  ama: Yoon A, Hohenegger C, Bao J, Brunner L. Extreme events in the Amazon after
    deforestation. <i>Earth System Dynamics</i>. 2026;17(1):167-179. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-167-2026">10.5194/esd-17-167-2026</a>
  apa: Yoon, A., Hohenegger, C., Bao, J., &#38; Brunner, L. (2026). Extreme events
    in the Amazon after deforestation. <i>Earth System Dynamics</i>. Copernicus Publications.
    <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-167-2026">https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-167-2026</a>
  chicago: Yoon, Arim, Cathy Hohenegger, Jiawei Bao, and Lukas Brunner. “Extreme Events
    in the Amazon after Deforestation.” <i>Earth System Dynamics</i>. Copernicus Publications,
    2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-167-2026">https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-167-2026</a>.
  ieee: A. Yoon, C. Hohenegger, J. Bao, and L. Brunner, “Extreme events in the Amazon
    after deforestation,” <i>Earth System Dynamics</i>, vol. 17, no. 1. Copernicus
    Publications, pp. 167–179, 2026.
  ista: Yoon A, Hohenegger C, Bao J, Brunner L. 2026. Extreme events in the Amazon
    after deforestation. Earth System Dynamics. 17(1), 167–179.
  mla: Yoon, Arim, et al. “Extreme Events in the Amazon after Deforestation.” <i>Earth
    System Dynamics</i>, vol. 17, no. 1, Copernicus Publications, 2026, pp. 167–79,
    doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-167-2026">10.5194/esd-17-167-2026</a>.
  short: A. Yoon, C. Hohenegger, J. Bao, L. Brunner, Earth System Dynamics 17 (2026)
    167–179.
das_tickbox: '1'
date_created: 2026-02-16T10:44:58Z
date_published: 2026-02-04T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-07-06T12:55:02Z
day: '04'
ddc:
- '550'
department:
- _id: CaMu
doi: 10.5194/esd-17-167-2026
file:
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  date_created: 2026-02-23T10:26:29Z
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has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '        17'
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language:
- iso: eng
month: '02'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: 167-179
publication: Earth System Dynamics
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 2190-4987
publication_status: published
publisher: Copernicus Publications
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Extreme events in the Amazon after deforestation
tmp:
  image: /images/cc_by.png
  legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
  name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
  short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 17
year: '2026'
...