In the midst of the global climate crisis, we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity. How much of the flooded forest has been lost this year, if any, is still impossible to judge, says Brando, but he adds that the height of the dry season has not yet reached the northern parts of the Amazon. Floodplain forests are neglected. The Machado is important habitat for the dourada, the large and highly migratory catfish that feeds on fish in flooded forests. ", You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles. Fires have been breaking out at an unusual pace in Brazil this year, causing global alarm over deforestation in the Amazon region. The Amazon rainforest in Brazil is still burning, as the scorched forest above shows, and experts now fear it could spread into and destroy the flooded forest habitat where hundreds of fish species live. The Amazon must be protected. "Forest fires to clear land can also get out of control, spreading beyond the intended burn," she told Newsweek. They affect us all," said Robin Chazdon, professor emerita at the University of Connecticut who has studied tropical forest ecology. American conservationist Paul Rosolie, who visited the Amazon rainforest in Peru in July 2019, says trees and other biodiversity have been lost in recent fires. Yet one effect of forest loss in the Amazon has largely been ignored: how it influences the river system and the fish living in it. Meg Symington, the WWF's Managing Director for the Amazon, also pointed out the long-term effects that fire can have on the forest ecosystem. They affect us all," one expert said. Yet INPE statistics clearly show a worrisome trend of escalating deforestation rates, which had started to drop in around 2005 before rebounding a few years ago. “We found that deforested areas matched with local fisheries producing much lower yields than those with larger forest areas surrounding them,” says Castello. In the long term, scientists warn, droughts could become more severe and more frequent through climate change and deforestation, making it difficult to prevent a widespread conversion of floodplain forests into fire-dominated vegetation in the Amazon. Floodplain forests on sandy soils, such as along the blackwater Rio Negro, are particularly vulnerable because the soil doesn't hold much water. When asked if the forest fires were linked to the environmental policies of Bolsonaro, Mollo responded: "Data speaks for itself: Brazil saw a peak in deforestation, followed by a peak of fires. In addition to the climate, he said, he's also worried about the biodiversity — the tens of thousands of tree species and plants and the hundreds of thousands of insects and other wildlife that inhabit the Amazon. Ricardo Mello, head of the World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Amazon program, said that an increase in forest fires, in conjunction with other factors, could spell disaster for the rainforest.