Is the Amazon under threat?

A new team of scientists from 14 renowned European and South-American research institutes have created a new research programme, ambitious in nature, to predict the future of the Amazon in the face of potential threats from deforestation and climate change. AMAZALERT, as the project has been called, will also monitor and evaluate the impact of current public policies and measures in place to prevent Amazon degradation.

More than just an area of outstanding natural beauty housing many varied species, the forests also play an important role in regulating the climate, rainfall and the water supply of South America. The new research team, led by Dr. Bart Kruijt of the Dutch Wageningen University and Research centre (Wageningen UR) and Dr. Carlos Nobre of the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) will design a system to detect the signs of widespread forest degradation and to enable early warning if irreversible forest loss appears likely.

As well as their own findings, the team expect to utilise the vast amount of information available from previous studies, such as the Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). However models of climate, vegetation and their interactions are constantly changing – systematic information is scarce for the role of people and society in the Amazon. To counter this, a better understanding of the interaction between land surface and climate will be one of the key research areas, along the impact of the forest on recycling rainfall. The team also hope to provide a blueprint for an Early Warning System relating to forest fires.

The project will finish in three years time, where they hope to have assembled information that will greatly assist and evaluate the preservation of the Amazon for years to come.

Click here to visit the project website.

Published: Tuesday, 27th September 2011 by Ellen Haggan