News
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PhD studentship: can low-cost sensors and models show which Amazon forests are most at risk of burning?
A PhD at the University of Exeter combining environmental sensing, microclimate modelling and machine learning to predict fine-scale…
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China Scholarship Council and University of Exeter PhD Scholarships 2027 entry
中国国家留学基金委和英国埃克塞特大学合作奖学金（博士生项目） Prof Ted Feldpausch is recruiting students for the China Scholarship Council and University of Exeter PhD Scholarships.…
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The Amazon’s hottest days are warming more than twice as fast as its average
A new study in Communications Earth & Environment, co-authored at Exeter, shows that Amazonia’s climate extremes are changing…
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Andean Soil Carbon: The Deep Pool, Still Uncredited
A new policy brief distils our Global Change Biology study of 36 plots across the Colombian Andes: soil…
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Burned Amazonian forests stay altered for at least 40 years, new lidar study shows
New spaceborne-lidar work presented at ATBC 2026 shows Amazonian forests in Acre remain measurably shorter, simpler and lower…
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MSc completed: Lorena de Souza Fleury traces a 25-year legacy of soil fertilisation in Amazonian secondary forests
Lorena de Souza Fleury’s MSc at INPA finds that forest age, not fertiliser, drove carbon recovery in Amazonian…
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Tropical forests in the Americas are struggling to keep pace with climate change
Long-term forest monitoring shows that tropical forests in the Americas are shifting in composition in response to climate…
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Extreme El Niño weather saw South America’s forest carbon sink switch off
A major study in Science shows that the 2015–16 El Niño switched South America’s tropical forests from a…
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High-elevation tropical forest soils in Colombian Andes are rich in carbon from past fires
New research reveals that high-elevation tropical forest soils in the Colombian Andes store large stocks of pyrogenic and…
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Amazon Soil Carbon: The Missing Credit
Amazon Soil Carbon: Policy Brief Summary The conversion of forest to agriculture in the Amazon triggers a “deforestation…
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‘Unprecedented’ wildfires in tropical peatlands during 20th century
A new study reveals an unprecedented increase in wildfires in tropical peatlands during the 20th century. Peatlands store vast quantities of carbon below the Earth’s surface – more…
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From field to lab: how Amazon soil samples become data on fire and carbon
After thousands of kilometres of fieldwork across the Amazon, around two thousand soil samples have passed through the…
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Seven study areas across five Amazon states: the road trips behind our wildfire soil research
The Amazon PyroCarbon project has covered thousands of kilometres across Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Amazonas, Acre, and Pará over…
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Post-doc opportunity with the Amazon PyroCarbon Project
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Research opportunities. Pyrogenic…
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PhD Scholarship: Soil carbon dynamics following Amazon forest wildfires (2026 entry)
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Research opportunities. A…
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What controls forest carbon on the sandy soils of the southern Amazon?
Amazonian rainforests play an important global role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating climate, generating rainfall, and storing carbon. Yet,…
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Adding fire-derived carbon to the JULES land-surface model for the Amazon
By Oscar Kennedy-Blundell | Postdoctoral Research Associate I am currently working as a postdoctoral research associate focusing on…
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High-elevation tropical forest soils in Colombian Andes store nine times more pyrogenic carbon than Amazonian forests
The soil in high-elevation, cooler, drier tropical forests in the Colombian Andes stores more carbon from fires than…
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Thirty Tree Species Dominate the World’s Most Tree-Diverse Savanna
A new study published in Communications Biology (Nature Portfolio) found a surprising pattern in the world’s largest and…
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Soil carbon loss twice as severe with conversion to agriculture than with repeated wildfire in Amazonian forests
A new study shows the significant impact of recurring fires and agricultural conversion on soil carbon storage in…
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Does fire in forests regrowing on old pastures reduce soil carbon? Fieldwork in central Amazonia
The Amazon rainforest, an important carbon sink, faces increasing threats from deforestation and wildfires. But what happens to…
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Tropical forests in the Americas are changing too slowly to track climate change
Our new study published in the journal Science reveals a concerning trend, that tropical forests across the Americas…
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Fire reduces tree diversity and carbon in seasonal forests of the southern Amazon
We recently published a paper led by PhD student Maurivan Barros Pereira (State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT)),…
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Doctorate “Sandwich” Program Abroad (PDSE) Scholarship – Feldpausch Research Group
Funding is available for Brazilian students with the Feldpausch Research Group at the University of Exeter through the…
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Sampling burned forest soils near Manaus to measure fire’s effect on soil carbon
In November–December 2024, a seven-member Amazon PyroCarbon Project team established 22 soil plots across contrasting fire histories in…
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New artwork highlights forests damaged by deforestation and wildfire
Artwork developed by our Amazon Past Fire and Amazon PyroCarbon Projects, funded by UK NERC and ODA grants,…
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Revisiting burned forest plots in Acre to track how fire changes soil carbon
Between 19 and 30 April 2024, the Amazon PyroCarbon Project team travelled to Acre, Brazil, to revisit permanent…
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Extreme El Niño weather saw South America’s forest carbon sink switch off
Tropical forests in South America lose their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere when conditions become exceptionally…
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People and the Amazon: new display by the Univ of Exeter and Eden Project
Prof Ted Feldpausch and Prof Jose Iriarte developed a new display with the Eden Project to communicate to…
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Drought will reduce the rainforest’s ability to remove carbon from the environment
In a major collaboration involving 80 scientists from Europe and South America, our research identified the regions of…
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UFAC workshop trains student teachers to teach about Amazon wildfire
A project in partnership between the University of Exeter and UFAC-Brazil held the 2nd Workshop: Exchange of Knowledge…
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Workshop Exchange of Knowledge and Teaching on Burning in the Amazon, Confresa, MT-Brazil (video)
The Municipal Secretary of Education of Confresa offered the event “I Workshop Exchange of Knowledge and Teaching on…
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Ancient fires enhance Amazon forest drought resistance
In our recent paper, “Ancient fires enhance Amazon forest drought resistance” published in Frontiers in Forests and Global…
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Tropical Forest Research in Geography at the University of Exeter (video)
Researchers at the University of Exeter describe some of the globally important research that they lead on tropical…
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Fully funded PhD opportunity: Soil carbon dynamics following Amazon Forest fires: quantifying the role of fire severity and charcoal, NERC GW4+ DTP PhD
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Research opportunities. This…
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Amazon forest fire: rare for millennia, absent for 800 years
A new policy brief shows that intact Amazon forests have not burned for about 800 years, and that…
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Even Amazon forests with no record of fire carry its legacy deep in their soils
Charcoal-derived carbon makes up a tenth of the soil carbon under Amazon forests with no known fire history,…
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Amazon PyroCarbon Project Officially Launched!
We are pleased to announce the start of the Amazon PyroCarbon project. This major international collaboration, involving researchers…
Header image credit: Paulo Brando