Research Findings

What our measurements and models are revealing about fire and soil carbon

Fire releases carbon from the trees above — but also unlocks a cascade in the soils below. Our first results show that the belowground story is just as important.

Key findings to date

Based on our published papers. New findings will be added as work progresses.

Soil carbon resists fire — land conversion does not

Repeated fire alone does not significantly reduce soil organic carbon in Amazonian forests. However, agricultural conversion eliminates 38% of SOC. Across elevation gradients from lowland Amazonia to the Colombian Andes, climate and soil type together determine how much carbon accumulates and how vulnerable it is to disturbance.

Naval et al. 2025 → Montes-Pulido et al. 2025 →

Fire leaves a multi-century mark on peatland soils

Pyrogenic carbon created by wildfires persists in Amazonian peatland soils as a durable carbon sink. Burning during the 20th century was unprecedented compared to the previous two millennia — a fire signature with lasting implications for peatland carbon dynamics and future climate feedbacks.

Wang et al. 2025 → Wang et al. 2026 →

Lidar tracks structural degradation and recovery

GEDI satellite lidar reliably quantifies how forest structural complexity changes across degradation gradients in Amazonia — from intact forest to burned and cleared plots. This enables better integration of fire effects into carbon models and nationally determined contributions.

Doyle et al. 2025 → Vedovato et al. 2025 →

Publications

Naval, M. L. M. et al. & Feldpausch, T. R. (2025). Impacts of repeated forest fires and agriculture on soil organic matter and health in southern Amazonia. CATENA, 254, 108924. doi: 10.1016/j.catena.2025.108924

Wang, Y., Gallego-Sala, A., Bird, M. I. & Feldpausch, T. R. et al. (2025). Wildfire legacies on pyrogenic carbon stocks in Amazonian peatlands. Communications Earth & Environment, 6, 678. doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02674-7

Vedovato, L. B., Aragão, L. E. O. C. & Feldpausch, T. R. et al. (2025). Impacts of fire on canopy structure and its resilience depend on successional stage in Amazonian secondary forests. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, rse2.431. doi: 10.1002/rse2.431

Pereira, M. B., Elias, F., Teixeira, N. D. A., Feldpausch, T. R., Marimon-Junior, B. H., & Marimon, B. S. (2025). Post-fire changes in tree diversity, composition and carbon in seasonal forests in the Southern Amazonia. Forest Ecology and Management, 578, 122447. doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122447

Alvarez, F., Marimon-Junior, B. H., Marimon, B. S., Ter Steege, H., Phillips, O. L. & Feldpausch, T. R. et al. (2025). Tree species hyperdominance and rarity in the South American Cerrado. Communications Biology, 8, 695. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-07623-w

Wang, Y., Feldpausch, T. R., Swindles, G. T., Moss, P. T., McGowan, H. A., Sim, T. E. & Gallego-Sala, A. V. (2026). Unprecedented burning in tropical peatlands during the 20th century compared to the previous two millennia. Global Change Biology, 32(3). doi: 10.1111/gcb.70717

Montes-Pulido, C. R., Bird, M., da Silva Carvalho, L., Serrano, J. C., Quesada, C. A. & Feldpausch, T. R. (2025). Climatic and edaphic drivers of soil organic carbon and pyrogenic carbon stocks across elevation and land-use gradients. Global Change Biology, 31(7). doi: 10.1111/gcb.70135

Doyle, E. J., Graham, H. A., Boulton, C. A., Lenton, T. M., Feldpausch, T. R. & Cunliffe, A. M. (2025). Evaluating GEDI for quantifying forest structure across a gradient of degradation in Amazonia. Environmental Research Letters, 20(5), 054016. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/adc752

Additional papers are in preparation. Follow our news page for announcements.