Amazon rainforest may collapse within decades if critical point is reached: Study

Large ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest, may collapse and disappear alarmingly quickly, once a critical point in their destruction is reached, according to a study that calls for improved conservation efforts to protect these habitats.

Researchers, including those from the University of London in the UK, revealed the speed at which ecosystems of different sizes will disappear, once they have reached a point beyond which they transform into an alternative habitat.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, noted that shifts in the Earth's ecosystems occur over human timescales of years and decades, meaning the collapse of large vulnerable ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest and Caribbean coral reefs, "may take only a few decades once triggered."