Camp in the Amazon researches the effects of the climate crisis – 03/11/2023 – Environment

A place in the heart of the Amazon holds the forest’s climatic secrets. This does not mean that it is a space with special properties —despite a certain mystique that surrounds the area. What makes the so-called Camp 41 different is that it is there that the impacts and responses of the Amazon to the climate crisis are sought.

41, in the state of Amazonas, is part of a network of camps set amongst the trees. They are where researchers settle for long periods of time to discover interactions between the Amazon and changes in climate.

Important themes for understanding the biome, such as forest fragmentation and edge effects, are some of the studies carried out by these research centers immersed in the forest. No 41, more recently, has also developed a project that focuses on limiting the potential of the Amazon to absorb carbon dioxide (CO_two), something essential for climate modeling —that is, for projecting the future of the planet.

Connected by a network of trails, the research camps —today five are active, against ten in the 1980s— are a few kilometers apart. They are, however, kilometers of closed vegetation, where getting lost is not difficult.

41 is the most used of them. With a simple structure, the scientists themselves have to manage with food and organization during their stay. The important thing for the work, however, is the surrounding forest itself.

Conceived by renowned American biologist Thomas Lovejoy (1941-2021), along with other environmentalists, the space is the cradle of projects such as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments, which has been developed for over 40 years by Inpa (National Institute of Research in the Amazon ).

This research began in 1979, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, when it was still called the Critical Minimum Size Project for Ecosystems. ICMBio also participates in the actions.

The work seeks to unravel how the fragmentation of the Amazon —that is, the advance on the forest that turns it into a mosaic of areas, today especially due to land grabbing and agribusiness processes— impacts the ecosystem.

At the time of the beginning of the project, there was a perception that the future of forests would be to become a lot of fragments. There was then a debate about what would be better for environmental health: large continuous areas of forest or smaller pieces, says Mario Cohn-Haft, an ornithologist at INPA.

Today, thanks to what was studied at Camp 41 and elsewhere, we already know the answer: large continuous areas.

Another 41 mission is now focused on understanding how the lack of phosphorus in trees in the Amazon alters the absorption of carbon dioxide in the forest.

Trees use CO_two for photosynthesis, for growth. As a result, rich forests like the Amazon serve as carbon sinks. But having more CO_two available —the climate crisis is characterized by the increase in global temperature due to the higher concentration of this gas in the atmosphere, thanks to human action— does not necessarily result in greater absorption.

In the case of the Amazon, it is already known that this is explained, at least in part, by the lack of phosphorus, as shown by research recently published in the journal Nature. The study, done with your feet inside the forest showing the limitation of carbon absorption associated with phosphorus, may ultimately impact climate modeling and, consequently, change our perceptions of the climate crisis.

Measurements and fertilizations for this study were made in 32 slices (50 m by 50 m) of the forest surrounding the camp. In this endeavor, tree trunks deserve special attention due to their important carbon storage capacity.

The diameter of 5,500 trees is measured once a year, and every two months, 1,300 are observed up close. In the trees, the so-called dendrometric bands (metallic strips around the trunk) were also placed, to verify seasonal variations in size.

“I manage to look at them one by one and understand what is happening”, says Barbara Brum, a researcher at Inpa. “What we do here is an ant’s work. Each one takes a little piece and puts the puzzle together.”

Raffaello di Ponzio, project manager at Afex (as the fertilization experiment is called) and researcher at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), also highlights the importance of field work at 41.

“On the computer you cannot get all the parameters. From the animal that is eating the leaf and influencing the plant’s defense system to rain, sun, how phosphorus is absorbed or not by microorganisms”, he says.

“In such an environment there are so many factors that it is impossible, in a model, to be able to capture all of them. So a direct biological response, which is what we do here, is essential for you to validate these models.”

celebrities on the net

But it’s not just the scientists dedicated to deciphering the climate crisis that settle in the camp.

Thomas Lovejoy, who died on December 25, 2021, aged 80, leaving a legacy of decades of Amazonian research, took public figures to the place for an aperitif of the forest. Politician and environmentalist Al Gore and Hollywood star Tom Cruise are among some of the best-known names to pass through the 41’s hammocks.

Even for distinguished guests, comfort is limited: the spaces where the hammocks that act as beds are attached are covered, but have open sides. Showers have cold water — and another bathing option is a nearby creek.

The toilets on site even have a flush, but the preference is to use it only sometimes. There is also a kitchen, mostly open and also protected by a roof.

Electricity and light are realities only when the noisy generator is on. —the savings in discharges also avoids the need for the device to be activated to start the water pump—, which happens in very few moments, in which it is possible to try some degree of internet connection.

Apart from the generator, the only sound in 41 comes from the closed forest and its inhabitants — Manaus is about 125 km away, with access by asphalt and dirt roads. The howler monkeys, extremely noisy howler monkeys, are like a local choir.

To ensure this scenario of preservation, before his death, Lovejoy left a fund for the project of the camps, which also raises funds from entities (WWF is among those that have been supporters) to keep it in operation.

Rita Mesquita, an INPA researcher who has been studying forest fragments at 41 for decades, recalls that the memorial itself held after Lovejoy’s death was an opportunity to see friends donating resources, as a recognition of the passion that the American had for the place.

Now, she says, who along with Cohn-Haft is a kind of heir to 41, it is necessary to modernize the operation of the research program at the site, so that more scientists are able to observe the present and future of the planet from inside the forest.

_{The journalist traveled at the invitation of the United Nations Foundation.}