{"id":220,"date":"2019-09-03T20:43:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T19:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/tedfeldpausch\/?page_id=220"},"modified":"2026-02-24T09:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T09:03:42","slug":"overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ted-feldpausch\/overview\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ted Feldpausch is a Professor of Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change, Director of Postgraduate Research<\/a> in Physical Geography<\/a>, Faculty of Environment, Science, and Economy<\/a> and part of the Landscape and Ecosystem Dynamics<\/a> group and Global Systems Institute<\/a>. His research and teaching span global forests and savannas, with a focus on the tropics, especially Latin America, where he has lived and worked for more than 20 years. A major theme of his work is tropical forest resilience, degradation, and recovery. His research aims to understand the drivers of vegetation dynamics and structure, the effect of changing climate on carbon and nutrient cycling and storage, and how disturbance and forest degradation, including natural processes and anthropogenic conversion, affect long-term vegetation function. Recent work has expanded from evaluating the contemporary effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbance and forest degradation on vegetation function (e.g., fire, drought, logging, lightning) to studying drivers over centennial time scales. He trained in Plant Biology & Environmental Sciences at Michigan State University<\/a> and then worked in research with the US Forest Service<\/a> and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory<\/a>. He obtained an MSc and PhD in Forest Ecology & Soil Science at Cornell University<\/a> studying secondary forests, restoration, and logging while living for several years in central and southern Amazonia. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell using stable isotopes to study changes in plant and soil carbon dynamics due to invasive species, he moved to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Leeds<\/a> to study the drivers of change in pantropical tropical forests and savannas. Externally, he is a teaching professor at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA<\/a>) and the University of Mato Grosso State (UNEMAT<\/a>), Brazil where he teaches and supervises post-graduate students. His University of Exeter web page can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broad research specialisms:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tropical forest ecology; Amazonia and Africa; Land-cover, land-use change; Forest disturbance, degradation, and restoration; Logging; Forest-climate interactions; Drought; Fire; Pyrogenic carbon; Terrestrial carbon and nutrient cycling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualifications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PhD, Forest Ecology\/Soil Science, Cornell University
MSc, Soil Science\/Conservation and Sustainable Land-use, Cornell University
BSc, Environmental Plant Biology, Michigan State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Career<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Teaching professor at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA<\/a>), Brazil, Tropical Forest Science<\/em> post-graduate program<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching professor at the University of Mato Gross State (UNEMAT<\/a>), Brazil, Ecology and Conservation<\/em> post-graduate program<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMAZONICA, TROBIT, and RAINFOR projects, University of Leeds, UK. Funded by the UK\u2019s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US National Science Foundation project, Cornell University, NY USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA-sponsored Large- Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA-ECO)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, WA USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, MI, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media Coverage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Amazon faces an unprecedented increase in extreme temperatures in areas still preserved (2025, apublica.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire and agriculture drive soil degradation in the southern Brazilian Amazon (2025, FAPESP-Brazil<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People and the Amazon: New display developed in the tropical biome of the Eden Project based on research by Prof Ted Feldpausch and Prof Jose Iriarte (2023) Eden Project<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teach the teacher: Biology student at Universidade Federal de Acre shares her work to teach about forest fires in Amazonia (2023) Minist\u00e9rio da Educa\u00e7\u00e3o, UFAC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workshop at the Universidade Federal de Acre evaluates approaches to teach about wildfire in Amazonia (2023) Minist\u00e9rio da Educa\u00e7\u00e3o, UFAC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient fires may be helping the Amazon survive droughts \u2013 modern ones, not so much (2023) Mongabay<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major 2015 wildfires in central Amazon killed a quarter of vegetation (2021) New Scientist<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workshop on Fire in Amazonia Sciences and Practices: Past, Present, Future (2021) Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation-Brazil<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Innovation by ancient indigenous farmers increased biodiversity in Amazonia (2020) Univ. Exeter<\/a>, Mongabay<\/a>, Planeta (Portuguese)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animation about the BioResilience project, ‘Biodiversity resilience and ecosystem services in post-conflict socio-ecological systems’, developed with Chris Haughton, NERC, AHRC, and Hay Festival (2020) youtube<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Espiral: Translating the complexities of conservation (2020) NERC News<\/a> (read the story here: English<\/a>, Spanish<\/a> pdf)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long-term thermal sensitivity of Earth’s tropical forests (2020) Univ. Exeter<\/a>, Science<\/a>, Folha de S. Paulo<\/a>, (learn more<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small trees are among the oldest in African rainforests (2019) Univ. Exeter<\/a>, Nature<\/a>, Phys.org<\/a>, Daily Science<\/a>, Summary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global trait\u2013environment relationships of plant communities (2018) EurekAlert!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compositional response of Amazon forests to climate change (2018) Independent<\/a>, Brazil G1<\/a>, Holland<\/a>, Germany<\/a>, China<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil\u2019s actual forest-related CO2 emissions could blow by Paris pledge (2018) Mongabay<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Record Amazon fires and degraded forests (2017) Mongabay<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition (2017) BBC<\/a>, The Atlantic<\/a>, Science Daily<\/a>, Univ. Exeter<\/a>, NYT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tropical rainstorms and a wobbly rope bridge in the cloudy treetops (2017) Eden Project<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effect of climate change, lightning, fire, and drought on tropical forests – Eden Project interview (2017) YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Record heat and drought seen in Amazon during 2015-16 El Ni\u00f1o (2017) Mongabay<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon forest response to repeated droughts (2016) BBC<\/a>, Univ. Exeter<\/a>, Mongabay<\/a>, El Colombiano<\/a> (Spanish), Trouw<\/a> (Dutch)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most accurate picture yet of how the Amazon will respond to climate change (2016) Washington Post<\/a>, Univ. Exeter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Climate Post: Climate Pledges May Not Be Enough (2015) Huffington Post<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon\u2019s carbon uptake declines as trees die faster (2015) The Guardian<\/a>, NYT<\/a>,  Univ. Exeter<\/a>, O Globo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of tree species in the Amazon at risk of extinction (2015) The Guardian<\/a>, BBC News<\/a>, Univ. Exeter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One percent of tree species in the Amazon forest account for half of its carbon (2015) BBC News<\/a>, Univ. Exeter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just 227 species dominate Amazon landscape (2013) The Guardian<\/a>, BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pruning back carbon estimates (2012) Nature<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Africa forest biomass on rise despite drought (2012) BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research grants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

2026-2029, “Amazon Forest to Field: Mechanistic controls of post-deforestation soil carbon persistence under changing climate and land-use<\/a>“, NERC \u00a3k950k, PI: T. Feldpausch, coIs: K.J. van Groenigen, I. Hartley, Research coI: O. Kennedy-Blundell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024-2028, \u201cAmazon-SOS: A Safe Operating Space for Amazonian Forests<\/a>\u201d, NERC large grant NE\/X019039\/1,<\/a> PI: S. Sitch, co-I: Feldpausch, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022-2023, ‘Teach the teacher: developing local capacity to teach about forest fires risks and impacts and alternative land-use in Amazonia, Brazil\u2019, ODA – \u00a318k, PI: Feldpausch, Project Partners: L. Anderson (CEMADEN), L. Carvalho, S. Reis (UFAC), M. Pereira (UNEMAT), Y. Depaula, Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 – 2026, ‘Amazon PyroCarbon: Quantifying soil carbon responses to fire and climate change<\/a>‘, NERC-FAPESP (NE\/W001691\/1<\/a>) – \u00a31.3M (\u00a3653,000 Exeter), PI: Feldpausch, co-Is K.J. van Groenigen, S. Chadburn, L. Aragao, L. Carvalho, and colleagues from the UK, USA, Australia, and South America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021, ‘Do past fires explain current carbon dynamics of “old-growth” Amazonian forests?’, Exeter-NERC CoA, \u00a326,200, PI: Feldpausch, co-Is C. Belcher, L. Aragao, O. Phillips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021, NERC Radiocarbon Facility, charcoal 14<\/sup>C AMS dates, Forests, peat, and past fires: understanding the drivers of past fire in Amazonian forests.\u00a35,509Y. Wang, A. Gallego-Sala, T. Feldpausch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020-2021 Projeto CNPq\/PELD: Transi\u00e7\u00e3o Cerrado-Amaz\u00f4nia: bases ecol\u00f3gicas e socioambientais para a conserva\u00e7\u00e3o (etapa IV) (Long-term Ecological Research Project: Cerrado-Amazonia Transition: ecological and socioenvironmental basis for conservation), \u00a354k (R$383,500), PI: B.H. Marimon, coIs: B.S. Marimon, T. Feldpausch, et al.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2019-2020, NERC Radiocarbon Facility, charcoal 14<\/sup>C AMS dates to support NERC Amazon Past Fire Project, 400 dates, \u00a3200,800, PI: T. Feldpausch, coIs: L. Arag\u00e3o, C. Belcher, O. Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 – 2021, ‘BioResilience: Biodiversity resilience and ecosystem services in post-conflict socio-ecological systems in Colombia’, NERC\/AHRC (NE\/R017980\/1), \u00a31.4M, PI: T. Feldpausch, co-Is: D. Urrego, T. Pennington, N. Millner, L. Mercado, project partners: E. Alvarez-Davila, C.R. Montes-Pulido, J. Richardson, D. Armenteras, C. Velasquez-Ruiz, O.L. Hernandez-Manrique<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 – 2021, ColombiaBio Programme Project Integration, NERC\/AHRC, \u00a3300k, grant divided equally among five funded ColombiaBio projects, including T. Feldpausch as PI, co-Is: D. Urrego, T. Pennington, N. Millner, L. Mercado, project partners: E. Alvarez-Davila, C.R. Montes-Pulido, J. Richardson, D. Armenteras, C. Velasquez-Ruiz, O.L. Hernandez-Manrique<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018, NERC Radiocarbon Facility, charcoal 14C AMS dates to support a pilot study evaluating variation in past fire across Amazonia, \u00a313,554, PI Feldpausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018, QUEX Initiator grant, Amazon pyrogenic carbon: soil, peat, and Aeolian transport, \u00a310k, PI Feldpausch, co-I Gallego-Sala<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017, ‘Historical fire effects on old-growth Amazon forest, soil fertility and carbon storage’ Official Development Assistance (ODA), NERC, \u00a320k, T. Feldpausch (PI) and L. Aragao (co-I).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2017, ‘Effects of El Ni\u00f1o and fire on Colombian forests’, Ayudar Colombia and Santander Universities, \u00a31680, T. Feldpausch (PI), L.C.S Carvalho (co-I), E. Alvarez-D\u00e1vila (project partner, Colombia)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 – 2020, ‘Cerrado-Amazonia Transition: ecological and socio-environmental basis for conservation’ – Long-Term Ecological Research Network, CNPq-Brazil, \u00a3147k, B.S. Marimon (PI), Project partners: B.H. Marimon, O. Phillips, R. Brienen, T.R. Feldpausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 – 2019, “Forest Network (ReFlor): biodiversity, climate change, and biotechnology in the ‘Arc of Deforestation’, Brazil”, Funda\u00e7\u00e3o de Amparo \u00e0 Pesquisa do Estado de Mato Grosso (FAPEMAT), \u00a358k, PI B.H. Marimon,  Rafael Soares de Arruda (co-I), Project partners: B.S. Marimon, O. Phillips, E. Gloor, T.R. Feldpausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 – 2022 ‘Lightning: An invisible driver of tree mortality in the tropics?’ NERC (NE\/P001564\/1), \u00a3800k, Hill, T. (PI); Co-I: T.R. Feldpausch, E. Mitchard, M. Haddad; Project Partners: G. Chuyong, H. Chapman, J. Elworthy, L. Rowland, D. Mitchard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 – 2021, ‘Do past fires explain current carbon dynamics of “old-growth” Amazonian forests?’, NERC (NE\/N011570\/1), \u00a3575,107, Feldpausch, T.R. (PI); Co-I:  L. Arag\u00e3o, C. Belcher, O. Phillips; Project Partners: M. Bird, C. Quesada, K. Macario, Ben Hur Marimon, Beatriz Marimon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2016 – 2017, ‘The Weather Maker Live: Research projects piloted and communicated’, Eden Project and University of Exeter Research Collaboration Fund, \u00a37500, J. Elworthy (PI), R. Betts (co-I), Project partners: T. Hill, L. Rowland, I. Hartley, L. Mercado, T.R. Feldpausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2014 – 2016, ‘Biomass and fire in degraded forests in Peru and Brazil: Evaluation using airborne LIDAR remote sensing’, SilvaCarbon Fund, \u00a3133k, Keller, M. (PI); Feldpausch, T.R. (Co-I)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2014 – 2016, ‘Phytogeography and paleovegetation of the Amazon\/Cerrado transition in Mato Grosso, Brazil’, Funda\u00e7\u00e3o de Amparo \u00e0 Pesquisa do Estado de Mato Grosso (FAPEMAT), \u00a36400, Marimon, B.H. (PI); Feldpausch, T.R. (Project Partner)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2013 – 2016, ‘Phytogeographic characterization, species distribution, and woody vegetation determinants in the Cerrado \/ Amazonia transition’, Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), \u00a355,300, Marimon, B.H. (PI); Feldpausch, T.R. (Project Partner)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2012 – 2015, ‘Fire, pyrogenic carbon, and Amazonian forest’, Brazilian National Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), \u00a3137k, Feldpausch, T.R. (PI); Project partners: B.H. Marimon, B. Marimon, C. Quesada, M. Bird, K. Macario<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2011 – 2012, ‘Assessing the impacts of the 2010 drought at the Amazon forest-savanna zone of tension’, NERC (NE\/I02982X\/1), \u00a365k, Phillips, O. (PI), Feldpausch, T.R. (Co-I), Project partners: J. Lloyd, Y. Malhi, L. Arroyo, B.H. Marimon, B. Marimon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2008 Royal Society Networking grant: \u2018Development of a Ghanaian-led long-term forest monitoring initiative to evaluate climate change effects on West African forests\u2019 (PI Feldpausch, \u00a310k)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2008-2010 Royal Society International Joint Projects grant, \u2018Liana impacts on the structure and carbon balance of African forests\u2019 (PI Feldpausch, \u00a312k)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Networks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n