The eastern Amazon Basin may become drier as a result of less regional recirculation of water in a largely deforested landscape and because of increased frequency and intensity of El Niño events induced by global warming. Drier conditions may affect several plant and soil microbial processes, including soil emissions of CO2, CH4, NO, and N2O. We report here unanticipated results of a pilot study that was initiated to test the feasibility of a larger-scale throughfall exclusion experiment. In particular, soil drying caused a switch from net consumption of atmospheric CH4 by soils in the control plot to net CH4 emission from soils in the experimentally dried plot.
Negative fire feedback in a transitional forest of southeastern Amazonia
Negative fire feedback in a transitional forest of southeastern Amazonia
Anthropogenic understory fires affect large areas of tropical forest, particularly during severe droughts. Yet, the mechanisms that control tropical forests' susceptibility to fire remain ambiguous. We tested the widely accepted hypothesis that Amazon forest fires...