Carbon flux in the Amazon
Issued: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:34:00 BST
Exploring undocumented drainage channels in the Amazon and venturing into the rainforest at night to collect water samples are all in a day's work for Susan Waldron, Professor of Biogeochemistry.
As a partner in the international Amazonica (Amazon Integrated Carbon Analysis) project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, Professor Waldron is researching carbon fluxes from freshwater aquatic systems in the Amazon.
Amazonian tropical forests cover the largest forested area globally, constitute the largest reservoir of above-ground organic carbon and are exceptionally species rich. They are under strong human pressure through logging, forest to pasture conversion and exploitation of natural resources and they face a warming climate and a changing atmospheric environment. These factors have the potential to significantly affect the global atmospheric greenhouse gas burden (CO2, CH4), chemistry and climate.
Professor Waldron and Dr Leena Vihermaa will use quantified ground-based fluxes of atmospheric CO2 to understand whether the Amazon is currently a sink or source of atmospheric CO2. By understanding how the Amazon will function as a carbon sink, or not, scientists can develop 'under different land-use models' allowing them to create more accurate projections.
Professor Waldron explains: 'The huge scale of the Amazon is such that much of our projection of CO2 efflux will be generated using data from well-established Amazon wide river sampling networks, but little is known about carbon fluxes from very small drainage systems, within the rainforest and from more nutrient-rich sites, so we have a field programme in the Tambopata Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon to address this lack of knowledge.'
Find out more:
- Professor Susan Waldron
- Dr Leena Vihermaa
- School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
- Amazonica: Amazon Integrated Carbon Analysis project
- Natural Environment Research Council
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