Tag: Tropical forest
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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 than all the world’s forest biomass combined – but when they catch fire large amounts of the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. Wildfires in tropical regions have been on the rise in recent decades, but the history and characteristics of wildfires in tropical peatlands remain largely unknown. …
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PhD Scholarship: Soil carbon dynamics following Amazon forest wildfires (2026 entry)
A fully-funded PhD scholarship is available at the University of Exeter: Soil carbon dynamics following Amazon forest wildfires About the award Supervisors Lead Supervisor Dr Kees Jan Van Groenigen, Department of Geography, University of Exeter Additional Supervisors Professor Ted Feldpausch, Department of Geography, University of Exeter Eleanor Burke, Met Office Professor Plinio Camargo, University of…
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PhD Scholarship: Integrating sensing, modelling and data analytics to understand forest microclimate dynamics under fire, degradation and climate change in Amazonia
A fully-funded PhD scholarship is available at the University of Exeter: Integrating sensing, modelling and data analytics to understand forest microclimate dynamics under fire, degradation and climate change in Amazonia Supervision Lead Supervisor: Professor Ted Feldpausch Co-Supervisors: Ilya Maclean; I.M.D.Maclean@exeter.ac.uk Project This project combines environmental sensing, computational modelling anddata analytics to understand how climate change,…
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Fieldwork Investigates Forest Carbon, Structure, and Composition on Sandy Soils in Southern Amazonia
Amazonian rainforests play an important global role in maintaining biodiversity, regulating climate, generating rainfall, and storing carbon. Yet, despite their importance, these forests continue to face multiple forms of degradation.
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Integrating Pyrogenic Carbon into JULES: Updates from the Amazon and Conferences
By Oscar Kennedy-Blundell | Postdoctoral Research Associate I am currently working as a postdoctoral research associate focusing on black carbon, or pyrogenic carbon (PyC), in the Amazon Basin. My primary focus is modelling the occurrence of PyC using the RothC model and the JULES land surface model.
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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 lower, warmer regions, new research shows.
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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 most floristically tree diverse tropical savanna, the Cerrado. The research shows that despite hosting approximately 1,605 tree species, a mere 30 species – less than 2% – account for nearly half of all trees. This phenomenon of…
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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 the Amazon rainforest. The research, a collaboration between the University of Exeter (UoE) and Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA) at the University of São Paulo (USP), demonstrates substantial carbon loss and degradation of soil properties…
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Changes in soil carbon following fire in forests regrowing on abandoned pastures in Central Amazonia
The Amazon rainforest, an important carbon sink, faces increasing threats from deforestation and wildfires. But what happens to the soil carbon after these disturbances? MSc student, Lorena Fleury, in the Tropical Forest Science Postgraduate Programme at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA), supervised by Prof. Ted Feldpausch, has been sampling soil in secondary…
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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 are changing their composition and function too slowly to keep up with the pace of climate change. This mismatch puts these important ecosystems, biodiversity hotspots, and carbon sinks at significant risk.