We study how fire, deforestation, drought, logging, and climate change shape tropical forests and savannas across Amazonia and Africa — from individual trees to entire biomes. Our research combines long-term forest plots, remote sensing, and ecosystem modelling to understand carbon stocks, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity resilience in the face of accelerating environmental change.
Professor Ted Feldpausch · Professor of Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change · University of Exeter
Amazon Soil Carbon: Policy Brief Summary The conversion of forest to agriculture in the Amazon triggers a “deforestation multiplier,” resulting in a total carbon loss equivalent to approximately 1.2 times the original forest’s aboveground biomass. While current carbon credit standards like VERRA/VCS focus on standing timber, new evidence highlights the significant, unprotected carbon stocks remaining…
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. …
After thousands of kilometres of fieldwork across the Amazon, around two thousand soil samples have passed through the CENA laboratory in Piracicaba. This is the story of how they are dried, ground, sieved, weighed, and analysed to reveal how wildfires affect Amazonian soils.
