Dossier
Amazon
The weather in the Amazon is more often dry nowadays and when it is, the world's biggest rainforest produces vast quantities of CO2. This may be the forest's death warrant, with serious consequences for climate. Wageningen researchers see both signs of stress and a surprising degree of resilience.
A lot of water combined with heat and sunlight provide ideal conditions for luxuriant plant growth. This becomes apparent when rain suddenly becomes scarce, as it did in 2005, 2010 and 2015. The vegetation grew at a slower pace and there were more forest fires.
The forest remains a tropical rainforest
Drought causes problems for trees and other plants which are used to a humid environment. The crowns of trees thin out and some trees die off completely. The response of forests to more frequent droughts is surprising: the forest may change in the composition of species present but it remains tropical rainforest, with more or less the same amount of biomass and of sequestrated CO2.
Research chair group Meteorology and Air Quality
Ingrid van der Laan-Luijkx, assistant professor at the Meteorology and Air Quality chair group, can see such effects from Wageningen by studying the air quality above the Amazon. Van der Laan's lab is working with Brazilian researchers who take regular air samples from a small plane at different altitudes above the Amazon.
Want to know more?
- What will the Amazon do? Wageningen World, 2016-4
- Regional atmospheric CO2 inversion reveals seasonal and geographic differences in Amazon net biome exchange, Global Change Biology, 28 April 2016
- Collecting air above the Amazon. Resource, 12 Feb 2015
News about the Amazon
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Scientists bring biophysics into remote Amazon classrooms
- Typically, Jordi Vilà and Martin Janssens are interested in fundamental research questions, such as: how clouds bringing rain to the Amazon... -
COP16: Protecting the Amazon with science and Indigenous knowledge
- As the UN Biodiversity Conference 2024 approaches, the spotlight turns to the Amazon—a vital ecosystem under threat. Wageningen University &... -
'Stickiness' of rarity and the universal dance of dominance
- In a revelatory exploration of biodiversity, a recent study has exposed the universal principles governing the dominance and rarity of species across... -
How textural features can improve SAR-based tropical forest disturbance mapping
- An article of Johannes Balling, Martin Herold and Johannes Reiche: How textural features can improve SAR-based tropical forest disturbance mapping,... -
New research reveals global plastic pollution patterns in river basins
- Plastic pollution in the world's oceans is a critical environmental issue that demands urgent attention. A recent study published in Nature...
Projects about the Amazon
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The environmental sensitivity of plant and animal populations
My research activities have included studies in tropical, temperate and arctic regions, and involved trees and fishes. Across these biomes and... -
Oil palm agroforestry in theBrazilian Amazon
The study aims to assess the potential for - and factors underlying - scaling of oil palm agroforestry by examining its social, ecological and... -
AMAZON-FACE
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Optimizing plant based protein yield and quality in the post-harvest chain
To prevent worldwide protein shortages it is important to optimize the recovery methods of proteins from new plant based biomass sources. The effects... -
The role of aquatic-terrestrial coupling in the resilience of Amazonian floodplain forests to fire (Brazil)
Publications about the Amazon
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Phylogenetic conservatism in the relationship between functional and demographic characteristics in Amazon tree taxa
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Phylogenetic conservatism in the relationship between functional and demographic characteristics in Amazon tree taxa
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Rainfall seasonality shapes belowground root trait dynamics in an Amazonian tropical rainforest: A test of the stress-dominance hypothesis
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Appendices for "Tracing the History of the Taruma People through Plants, Their Names, and Uses" by Robin Bredero zur Lage et al., published in the Journal of Language Contact (JLC), Volume 17 issue 3 (2024).
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From earthquakes to island area : multi-scale effects upon local diversity
Ecography (2024), Volume: 2024, Issue: 5 - ISSN 0906-7590 -
Aurantoside L, a New Tetramic Acid Glycoside with Anti-Leishmanial Activity Isolated from the Marine Sponge Siliquariaspongia japonica
Marine Drugs (2024), Volume: 22, Issue: 4 - ISSN 1660-3397 -
The politics, spaces and subjects of forest conservation in Colombia
Wageningen University. Promotor(en): G. Winkel, co-promotor(en): J.H. Behagel - Wageningen: Wageningen University -
One sixth of Amazonian tree diversity is dependent on river floodplains
Nature Ecology and Evolution (2024), Volume: 8, Issue: 5 - ISSN 2397-334X - p. 901-911. -
Estimating species distribution from camera trap by-catch data, using jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi) as an example
Diversity and Distributions (2024), Volume: 30, Issue: 10 - ISSN 1366-9516 -
In situ short-term responses of Amazonian understory plants to elevated CO2
Plant Cell and Environment (2024), Volume: 47, Issue: 5 - ISSN 0140-7791 - p. 1865-1876.