A fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD at Cardiff University, with Exeter, Bath and Florida, on how lightning ignites trees and how to reduce lightning-wildfire risk. Closes 7 January 2027.
A fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD at the University of Exeter on how wildfire and charcoal change soil carbon in Amazon forests. Closes 7 January 2027.
A PhD at the University of Exeter combining environmental sensing, microclimate modelling and machine learning to predict fine-scale climate, heat stress and fire risk in Amazon forests, with fieldwork in Brazil optional.
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. Full-time PhD scholarships are available in collaboration with the China Scholarship Council (CSC), for September 2027/28 entry. Available PhD Projects The PhD projects focus on a range of themes related to fire, land-use change, tree mortality, carbon cycling, and forest […]
A new study in Communications Earth & Environment, co-authored at Exeter, shows that Amazonia’s climate extremes are changing far faster than its averages, and that the fastest-changing region is the central-north Amazon, far from the arc of deforestation.
A new policy brief distils our Global Change Biology study of 36 plots across the Colombian Andes: soil carbon rises six-fold from lowland to high-elevation forest, and a fire-derived fraction nine times the Amazon average makes it exceptionally durable — yet carbon-credit standards still treat soil as optional.
Amazon Soil Carbon: Policy Brief Summary The conversion of forest to agriculture in the Amazon triggers a “deforestation multiplier”: the ecosystem loses carbon equivalent to about 1.2 times the original forest’s aboveground biomass. Current carbon-credit standards such as Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) focus on standing timber, yet new evidence highlights the significant, unprotected carbon […]
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. […]
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Research opportunities. Pyrogenic Carbon in the Amazon: quantifying soil carbon responses to the effect of fire. 2021/00976-4 – UKRI – NERC – Research Project – Thematic Plinio Barbosa de Camargo (CENA/USP) – Ted R. Feldpausch Institution: Center for Nuclear Energy […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We recently published a paper led by PhD student Maurivan Barros Pereira (State University of Mato Grosso (UNEMAT)), supervised by Prof. Ted Feldpausch and co-supervised by Drs Ben Hur Marimon and Fernando Elias da Silva. The findings were published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, “Post-fire changes in tree diversity, composition and carbon in […]
Artwork developed by our Amazon Past Fire and Amazon PyroCarbon Projects, funded by UK NERC and ODA grants, was shown at a new artwork exhibit to highlight deforestation and wildfire. Tipping Point, by Bristol artist Luke Jerram, combined smoke, lights and sound to simulate forest fires. The installation ran at the University of Bristol’s Botanic […]
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. FAPESP Opportunity Postdoctoral Opportunity to Quantifying Soil Organic Carbon Responses to Landscape-Scale Fire in the Amazon This research aims to map and quantify the environmental factors, especially “fire”, that drive the spatial variation of soil organic carbon (SOC) and […]
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. We are recruiting for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to model soil carbon and fire in tropical forests. Summary of the Role We wish to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of Profs Richard Betts, Ted Feldpausch, […]
Prof Ted Feldpausch and Prof Jose Iriarte developed a new display with the Eden Project to communicate to the public research findings about historical land-use and fire use by pre-Columbian people.
Expert talk – ‘The history of people and fire in the Amazon rainforest’ Where: The Core Film Room (1st floor), The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK When: 2pm, 11-Sept-2023 People have been living in the Amazon rainforest for 13,000 years. Their use of fire and plants has had long-term impacts on forest structure, composition, and soils. Join Professor Ted Feldpausch and Professor José […]
As part of the NERC-funded Amazon Past Fire project, we coordinated a training session with university students in the secondary education teaching programme at the Federal Universidade de Acre, Brazil, about fire impacts, management, and sustainable forest use in Brazil.
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. There is a post-doctoral opportunity at INPE to study forest degradation, fire, and soil carbon using remote sensing.
A project in partnership between the University of Exeter and UFAC-Brazil held the 2nd Workshop: Exchange of Knowledge and Teaching on Burning in the Amazon, taught by biologist Yara Araújo Pereira de Paula, Master in Ecology from UFAC. The event had students as its target audience and ran from Monday, 20th to Saturday, the 25th, […]
The Municipal Secretary of Education of Confresa offered the event “I Workshop Exchange of Knowledge and Teaching on Burning in the Amazon”, which took place on February 22, 23 and 24, 2023, in the face-to-face format at the municipality of Confresa, MT. Funded by the University of Exeter (UK) and the Natural Environmental Research Council, […]
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, […]
In our recent paper, “Forest Fire History in Amazonia Inferred From Intensive Soil Charcoal Sampling and Radiocarbon Dating” published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, we examined the history of ancient fire in intact rainforests across Amazonia using radiocarbon dating.
A two-day hybrid workshop (both online and in-person) was held on 25th and 26th November 2021 that included 20 participants from different institutions in the United Kingdom, Australia, Colombia, Spain, and Brazil.
The four-day workshop “Science and Practices of Fire in Amazonia: past, present and future”, organized by the University of Exeter, with Brazilian institutions (Cemaden, INPE and UNEMAT), was held between 8 and 11 November – online. The workshop was attended by almost 300 people*, most of them Brazilian and about 15% of foreigners (Europe, Africa, […]
This workshop took place on 8–11 November 2021. Read the report: Nearly 300 people join online workshop on fire in Amazonia. The Workshop held by the University of Exeter, National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN), National Institute for Space Research (INPE), and University of Mato Grosso State (UNEMAT) will be […]
Research at the University of Exeter examines how measurements of charcoal reflectance can be used to understand fire regimes and carbon dynamics in tropical forests in South America.
A new study by Pontes-Lopes et al. 2021 examining the impacts of the record-breaking drought and fires caused by the 2015/2016 El Niño has found that even the wet forests of central Amazonia, forests considered relatively fire-resistant, were affected by fire.
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. The public selection process is now open for assessing and selecting candidates for admission to the Masters and PhD programme in the Tropical Forests Science Programme at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) with research projects matching themes […]
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Research opportunities. Two complementary PhD studentships have been funded thanks to donations from long-term University of Exeter supporters, the A. G. Leventis Foundation. Both will be based within the Global Systems Institute and focus on tropical forest protection and restoration, […]
Fire is an important cause of disturbance in terrestrial ecosystems and can has a major impact on biodiversity. We evaluated the effect of fire regime on species richness and tree basal area in southern Amazon forest using Landsat and PALSAR data.
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. We are seeking qualified and motivated candidates to pursue a PhD studying how lighting affects tree mortality, carbon dynamics, and forest composition in tropical forests. Applications for the NERC GW4+ project are open, with a closing date of 16:00 […]
Innovation by ancient farmers to improve soil fertility continue to have an impact on the biodiversity of the Amazon, a major new study shows.
There has been a large increase in deforestation and wildfire in Amazonia over recent years. Fire in tropical forests increases tree mortality, degrades forest structure, and reduces carbon stocks (Figure 1). Remote sensing now permits a rapid and accurate assessment of the location and extent of fires. On the ground and in forests, however, there […]
New research in Geography at the University of Exeter is developing a charcoal reflectance methodology into a novel metric with which to assess fire severity and the amount of energy that has been delivered across burned areas in the UK, USA and Brazilian Amazon.
Fire is an important disturbance factor on the land surface, and effects carbon, nitrogen and water cycles, and it is therefore important to be able to represent this process in models.
This opportunity has closed. For current PhD and postdoctoral opportunities in the Feldpausch group, see Opportunities. We are seeking qualified and motivated candidates to pursue a PhD in forest degradation and ecosystem services in tropical montane forests.
Our recent research highlights the negative effects of fire on the forest carbon sink in seasonally flooded forests in southern Amazonia, an area rich in diversity at the forest-savanna transition, including permanent forest plots from the Parque Estadual Araguaia.