Amazonia has the world’s most extensive forests, with the largest reservoir of above-ground organic carbon - around 90 Pg C in live trees alone - and the most species. They are under strong human pressure through logging, conversion and exploitation of resources. They face a warming climate and a changing atmosphere. Because of the vast scale of Amazonia, these factors have the potential to significantly modify the global atmospheric greenhouse gas burden (CO2, CH4), the earth’s climate, and the overall biodiversity of the planet. Some scenarios suggest catastrophic release of carbon from Amazon soil and vegetation this century, accelerating climate change globally even before accounting for the impacts of deforestation.
While the role of Amazonia in the carbon cycle is clearly of global importance, its behavior is contentious, even for that portion not undergoing rapid land use change. Understanding the current carbon balance of the whole system is critical to determine its role in either slowing or accelerating climate change through the 21st century.
In lowland Amazonia our work is embedded within the RAINFOR long-term inventory network. Within this network, we have 13 plots across 5 sites across Amazonia (in Bolivia, Peru and Brazil). in which we:
- intensively quantify and understand the dominant fluxes into and out of main carbon pools above and below ground,
- establish the infrastructure - plots, methods, expertise - to allow long-term monitoring across the vast region, and
- make these data freely available through the GEM website after sufficient quality control.
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Hello,
Some pictures of Carla Staver's fieldwork at Allpahuayo plots. She is studying tree functional traits as predictors of fire reaction in Amazonian forests. She is using Allpahuayo forest data (as a control for Eastern Amazonian forests (Manaus, Acre, Mato Grosso, Santarem y Roraima).
Pictures show the procedure for extracting and measuring a sample of bark.
Jhon
I am Professor of Ecosystem Science at Oxford University.
I lead the Ecosystems Programme at the Environmental Change Institute, with a focus of understanding the functioning of tropical forests and...
Professor at the State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Campus of Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The broad scope of my interest is the impact of environmental changes in...
Possui graduação em Ciências Biologicas pela Universidade de Brasília (1985), mestrado em Biologia (Ecologia) pelo Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (1991) e doutorado em Biologia (Ecologia) pelo Instituto Nacional...
I coordinate carbon cycling data for the GEM network. I am an ecosystems scientist focussing on carbon dynamics of tropical forest ecosystems. Following my PhD at Oxford University School of...
Professor at the State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT), Campus of Nova Xavantina, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. Ecologist working with structure, dynamics and management of vegetation types of the transition...
My long-term research goal is to understand the dynamics of carbon and biodiversity across the world’s tropical forests, how these change with our changing climate, and how they may feedback...
I am a Peruvian biologist, got my degree in National University of Peruvian Amazon. I worked in RAINFOR permanent plots placed in Iquitos, Peru. Nowadays, I work for Peruvian Amazon...
I am a Database Assistant, supporting the tropical forest database ForestPlots.net and associated research projects RAINFOR, Afritron and T-FORCES. I am studying for a Masters in GIS alongside my research...