Amazon PyroCarbon: quantifying soil carbon responses to fire

• Grant number: 21/00976-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Duration: April 01, 2022 - March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Convênio/Acordo: NERC, UKRI
• Principal Investigator: Plínio Barbosa de Camargo
• Grantee: Plínio Barbosa de Camargo
• Principal researcher abroad: Ted Ronald Feldpausch
• Institution abroad: University of Exeter, Exeter, England
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Raimundo Cosme de Oliveira Junior
• Associated researchers: Chantelle Burton ; Edgard Siza Tribuzy ; Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud Ometto ; Luiz Antonio Martinelli ; Luiz Eduardo Oliveira e Cruz de Aragão ; Maurício Lamano Ferreira ; Paulo Monteiro Brando

Abstract

Fires are increasing in Amazonia, transforming C storage. The evaluation of fire effects has traditionally focussed on aboveground C. However, soil organic carbon (SOC) can store half of total tropical forest C 19 and the impact of fire on existing SOC and the fate of new charcoal (pyrogenic C; PyC) is unknown. SOC loss, transformation and gain may have important implications for the C balance of large areas recovering from recent burning or following cycles of slash and burn agriculture, thereby altering the rate of C loss under a warming climate. This project will implement a systematic pan-Amazonian analysis of the response of SOC to recent fire, drought, and climate warming via a robust chronosequence approach, integrated with innovative modelling to inform land management strategies and C budgets. (AU)