Chapter 2. Living Atmosphere
The results of research using ice core data and information gleaned from atmospheric measurements are presented by the British Antarctic Survey here: https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/publication/ice-cores-and-climate-change/.
For a full set of references relating to different aspects of climate change, see this compendium of technical resources used in the writing of the Ladybird Book of Climate Change, by HRH The Prince of Wales, Dr Tony Juniper and Dr Emily Shuckburgh published in 2017 https://www.rmets.org/ladybird-annex/.
The rainforest carbon store
For a comprehensive compendium of sources on the linkages between deforestation and climate change see Tropical Forests – A Review published by The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit (ISU) in 2015. Find that here: https://www.pcfisu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Princes-Charities-International-Sustainability-Unit-Tropical-Forests-A-Review.pdf
The scale of carbon stocks in tropical forests is covered in Saatchi et al’s. 2011 paper ‘Benchmark Map of Forest Carbon Stocks in Tropical Regions Across Three Continents’, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116381/.
A sense of the costs of abating carbon emissions via the prevention and reversal of deforestation is explored in Out of the Woods: A Realistic Role for Tropical Forests in Curbing Global Warming, Boucher, D. (2008) Union of Concerned Scientists http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/global_warming/UCS-REDD-Boucher-report.pdf. This author suggests the cost of cutting emissions via this route might average at under $3 per tonne.
The results of mapping of forest loss across the tropical regions during the 21st century can be found in Hansen et al. (2013) ‘High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change’ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24233722.
Two degrees: a global warming danger threshold
Hilker et al. 2014 explore the extent to which the Amazon might become a source of carbon dioxide because of drying is explored in their paper ‘Vegetation dynamics and rainfall sensitivity of the Amazon’ http://www.pnas.org/content/111/45/16041.abstract.
For research on how some forests release more water vapour under drought conditions see this paper by Saleska et al. ‘Amazon forests green-up during 2005 drought’ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17885095.
Feedback: how forests could create more warming
The impact of severe heat on the Amazon is covered in this 2016 paper by Ker Than, including the release of carbon http://news.stanford.edu/2016/04/28/stanford-scientists-find-amazon-rainforest-responds-quickly-extreme-climate-events/.
Degradation and fragmentation
The role of large trees in rainforest carbon storage is examined by Slik, et al. in their 2013 paper ‘Large Trees Drive Forest Above-Ground Biomass Variation in Moist Lowland Forests Across the Tropics’. https://epubs.scu.edu.au/esm_pubs/1893/.
The effects of forest fragmentation on carbon storage are considered by Pütz et al. in their 2014 paper ‘Long-term carbon loss in fragmented Neotropical forests’ http://www.producao.usp.br/bitstream/handle/BDPI/46423/Long-term%20carbon%20loss%20in%20fragmented.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Results from high resolution satellite imagery revealing how tropical forests are split into about 50 million pieces was published by Brinck et al. in their 2017 in a paper ‘High resolution analysis of tropical forest fragmentation and its impact on the global carbon cycle’ https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14855.
For more on how forests might help with storm suppression, see Antonio Nobre’s excellent paper The Future Climate of the Amazon http://www.ccst.inpe.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The_Future_Climate_of_Amazonia_Report.pdf
Coral catastrophe; how deforestation impacts on Earth’s most diverse marine systems
Research findings into how corals can be affected by sediments released through deforestation can be found in a 2011 paper by Weber et al. ‘Mechanisms of damage to corals exposed to sedimentation’ http://www.pnas.org/content/109/24/E1558.abstract.
A 2013 article setting out why it is believed deforestation is more of a threat to coral reefs than climate change can be found here https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130605071714.htm
Threats to the Coral Triangle are explored further in this report from the World Resources Institute http://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-risk-revisited-coral-triangle.