Amazon rainforests are rejuvenating their canopies by producing more photosynthetically efficient young leaves under climate change
2 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
3 University at Albany [SUNY]
4 UMN - University of Minnesota [Twin Cities]
5 UMich - Université du Michigan = University of Michigan [Ann Arbor]
6 HKU - The University of Hong Kong
7 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
8 Ottawa Research and Development Center
9 CRBE - Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement
10 UMR AMAP - Botanique et Modélisation de l'Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations
11 BNU - Beijing Normal University
12 Department of Geography and Planning [University of Toronto]
13 Peking University [Beijing]
14 OU - University of Oklahoma
15 CU - Cornell University [Ithaca]
16 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Changchun Branch]
17 Peking University [Shenzhen]
18 PNNL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
19 SCU - Sichuan University [Chengdu]
20 NUIST - Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
21 UNIBA - Università degli studi di Bari Aldo Moro = University of Bari Aldo Moro
22 State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science
23 HNU - Hunan Normal University
24 The University of Edinburgh
25 Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou
26 SILVA - SILVA
27 INPA - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia = National Institute of Amazonian Research
28 NUS - National University of Singapore
29 School of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Ecology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai
30 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing]
31 POLYU - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University [Hong Kong]
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Résumé
Leaf age structure strongly regulates canopy photosynthesis in Amazon rainforests yet its large-scale patterns and dynamics remain poorly understood. Here we map the fraction of leaf area of photosynthetically efficient young leaves (fyoung) using remote sensing data and assess its spatiotemporal variability from 2001 to 2023. We find that fyoung varies markedly with elevation and canopy height: tall or mountain forests (canopy ≥32 m or elevation ≥300 m) exhibit higher fyoung than short or lowland forests, reflecting higher leaf turnover driven by stronger radiation, greater atmospheric dryness and longer dry seasons. Across the basin, fyoung increased significantly in 85.2% of forests during 2001–2023, linked to decreasing precipitation, rising sunlight, intensifying atmospheric dryness and lengthening dry seasons. This widespread trend towards more juvenile leaves is projected to persist under future climate change. Our findings reveal a fundamental shift in Amazon leaf age structure and highlight its importance for predicting future photosynthetic responses in a warmer, drier climate.
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Cite 10.5281/zenodo.18271110 Jeu de données Yang, X., & Chen, X. (2026). High-resolution leaf age-dependent LAI time-series dataset across Amazon rainforests [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.18271110