Why a Super El Niño Stops Tropical Forests From Absorbing Carbon
This article explains how a strong El Niño slows tree growth, raises tree death rates, and pauses carbon absorption in tropical forests, while also fuelling record heat in the Caribbean.
El Niño, the recurring climate pattern marked by long stretches of heat in the Pacific, does not stay in the Pacific. A super El Niño is now establishing itself there, according to MétéoMédia, and its effects are showing up in forests and islands thousands of kilometres away.
Trees take a break
During El Niño, tropical forests struggle. A recent study covered by MétéoMédia found that tree growth slows and mortality rises. On average, the death rate for trees jumps from 1.8 percent to 3 percent during an El Niño. For trees with trunks wider than 20 centimetres, the mortality rate doubles.
The result is bigger than a few dead trees. South American forests, the report says, completely stopped absorbing carbon during the El Niño period. That matters because tropical forests are immense carbon sinks. When a tree dies and decomposes, it releases the carbon it accumulated over its lifetime. A forest that had been pulling carbon out of the air can, during a hot El Niño, start adding it back.
MétéoMédia also reports that the frequency of super El Niño events has doubled in the past six decades compared with the sixty years before that. More frequent strong events mean more interruptions in the forests' carbon storage work.
Record heat in the Caribbean
The effects reach beyond the Amazon and other South American forests. France 24 reports that Martinique has been hit by a new heat wave, with record temperatures registered in recent weeks. The report attributes the heat, in part, to the particularly intense El Niño this year.
That is the practical side of El Niño for Caribbean communities: a climate pattern born in the Pacific makes itself felt as record heat in the islands.
Why the pause matters
The key problem is not just that trees grow more slowly. It is that the planet's natural carbon-capture system can falter just when it is needed most. When El Niño-driven heat makes forests release carbon instead of absorbing it, the extra greenhouse gas in the atmosphere can feed further warming.
The pattern documented by MétéoMédia is clear: stronger El Niños are linked to higher tree mortality, lower carbon absorption, and far-reaching heat. The forests, the Caribbean, and the atmosphere are connected in ways that a single temperature shift in the Pacific can change.