The Effects of Rainfall Exclusion on an Amazon Forest

排除降雨对亚马逊森林的影响

• 批准号: 0075602
• 负责人: Daniel Nepstad
• 金额: $ 43万
• 依托单位: Woodwell Climate Research Center, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-08-15 至 2003-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0075602&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Effects; Rainfall; Exclusion; Amazon; Forest

Abstract00-75602NepstadThe effects of rainfall exclusion on an Amazon forestDroughts increasingly threaten the world's major tropical rainforests. El Nino episodes cause severe drought and widespread forest damage by fire. In this project, the investigators are looking into the future of the Amazon rainforest by experimentally excluding rainfall from a one-hectare (2.5 acre) patch of forest in Brazil. This experiment will determine how much drought the rainforest can tolerate before its trees begin to lose leaves, stop growing and reproducing, and die. The researchers will also be investigating how drought affects the role of the rainforest in the changing chemistry of the atmosphere. It is no small task to exclude rain from a rainforest. The project upon which this research follows hired 26 laborers for a year to build a wooden frame containing 6100 plastic panels held 2-4 meters above the forest floor. Gutters carry the rainwater away from the site. The project also built 8 towers into the forest canopy, 10-stories above the ground, to monitor the physiology and dynamics of leaves. In addition, shafts 3-stories deep were dug to study soil water and roots.

亚马逊雨林降雨不足的影响干旱日益威胁着世界上主要的热带雨林。厄尔尼诺现象会导致严重的干旱和大范围的森林火灾。在这个项目中，研究人员正在研究亚马逊雨林的未来，通过实验排除巴西一公顷（2.5英亩）森林的降雨。这项实验将确定在雨林的树木开始落叶、停止生长和繁殖并死亡之前，雨林可以忍受多少干旱。研究人员还将调查干旱如何影响雨林在大气化学变化中的作用。把雨水排除在雨林之外不是一件容易的事。这项研究所遵循的项目雇用了26名工人，用一年的时间建造一个木制框架，其中包含6100个塑料板，这些塑料板被放置在森林地面以上2-4米处。排水沟把雨水从工地排走。该项目还在森林树冠中建造了8座塔，高出地面10层，以监测树叶的生理和动态。此外，还挖了3层楼深的竖井来研究土壤水分和根系。