PIRE: Carbon, Water and Vegetation Dynamics of Amazon Forests Under Climatic Variability and Change

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0730305SaleskaThis international partnership involving University of Arizona and Harvard University, University of São Paulo; Federal University of Pará; National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA); Brazilian Agricutural Research Agency (EMBRAPA); and the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi (Belém) addresses a fundamental earth system science question that cannot be answered without a strong intellectual collaboration between scientists in the U.S. and in South America: what is the future of Amazon forests under climate change? Models that simulate the coupled interaction of climate with carbon and water cycles, mediated by vegetation, suggest that these forests will collapse due to global warming-induced drying. But other models predict resilience. Since current knowledge is insufficient to resolve the discrepant predictions, this project is conducting a suite of long-term observations, integrated with modeling, to improve our understanding of the mechan¬isms of forest-climate interactions in Amazônia. The work focuses on the response of Amazon forests to drought such as that caused by the El Niño and Tropical Atlantic cycles. The integrated research program uses 3 approaches: (1) Long-term observations of ecosystem fluxes of carbon dioxide, water, and energy on a network of sites; vegetation dynamics and ecophysiology at a core site; and regional to continent¬al scale forest-atmosphere processes, by remote sensing and by aircraft and tower sampling campaigns of atmospheric carbon dioxide, trace gases, and biogenic aerosols. Extensive existing and new datasets allow PIRE students to make observational tests only now possible due to ground-based and satellite infrastructure put in place since the last large El Niño-related drought in 1997/98. (2) Long-term manipulation of precipitation and carbon dioxide inside a precisely controllable 0.2 ha experimental tropical forest, part of the University of Arizona?s new program at the Biosphere 2, in order to test mechanisms not observable at ambient carbon dioxide levels. (3) Multiscale model simulations linking carbon and water cycles with evolution of the forest vegetation assemblage, using the Ecosystem Demography (ED) model, general circulation models (GCMs), and high-resolution mesoscale and global models (Brazil-RAMS, OLAM).These research approaches are linked with an innovative education program combining international collaboration with interdisciplinary training in earth system science, in which graduate and undergraduate students will work in the Amazon rainforest, first as students in an annual field course in tropical ecology and biogeochemistry, and then (for graduate students), as teachers in a structured graduate mentoring of field research projects. The project involves intensive collaborations with Brazilian scientists and students including exchanges at Brazilian scientific institutions, and the development of projects leveraging the extensive datasets and facilities available as a result of close international collaboration. The project will also include training in key disciplines for the scientific study of Amazônia, and the environment using state of the art tools in remote sensing and modeling.This partnership will impact broader society by expanding International collaboration to improve scientific understanding of the future of the Amazon, including the role of Amazon forests in global biogeochemical cycling and climate change. Provide education for undergraduate and graduate students, including students from underrepresented groups, that integrates a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum with experience-based international field work that will foster intensive international collaborations between U.S. and Brazilian research groups. The project will involve Intensive collaboration between U.S. and Brazilian partners, leveraging significant added value from Brazilian support of Brazilian partners, and from extensive infrastructure and sophisticated field instrumentation, a result of past NASA and Brazilian support. It is expected that the project will be the foundation for a sustainable international collaboration that will foster a new generation of culturally experienced scientific leaders prepared to address global environmental problems. This project is funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) with co-funding from the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB).