Exactly, and the report uses the term “memetic” to distinguish from its frequent use to mean “image macro”. Unfortunately the article headline chose to confuse things.

"Advanced memetic engineering attacks could progressively undermine trust in financial markets and institutions, causing a steady, incremental impact on market stability rather than a sudden breakdown“
RAND Corporation, Technological and Economic Threats to the US Financial System, July 2024

The article body does a good job covering the topic, its a shame they chose such a clumsy headline.

It looks like the Amazon region was experiencing less rainfall at the time with a corresponding shift towards drought tolerant species with parts of the region as savannahs !!

https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/a/2567

With a different rainfall profile the nutrient loss would have been vastly reduced.

Fun fact: The ecosystems of the Amazon Basin rely on around 27.7 million tons of Saharan Dust each year to replace the phosphorus that is washed away by the rains. Without this constant input the local soils would have been stripped of needed nutrients and would be unable to support the plants that currently thrive there.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saharan_dust
• https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazons-plants/