Objective
The proposed research project aims to contribute to the answer of the following two overarching questions of global and European relevance:
- What is the contribution of Amazonia to the global atmospheric carbon balance?
- What is the contribution of Amazonia to the global atmospheric budgets of radiatively active trace gases (H20, CO2, CH4, N20, 03) and aerosol particles?
This will be achieved by a combination of measurements and modelling. At three forested and one deforested locations in the Amazon basin, the temporal and spatial variability of the fluxes of water, energy and CO2 will be determined by long term eddy covariance flux measurements. The temporal dynamics of these fluxes will be modelled by state of the art vegetation and SVAT models. The locally obtained measurement and modelling results will be extra-polated over the Amazon basin to indicate corresponding source or sink strengths. The data can be used for validation of the surface atmosphere interaction of global and regional climate models. Radiatively active gases and aerosol particles will be measured by a combination of chamber, eddy covariance and eddy accumulation techniques during several campaigns (4 - 6 weeks each) in wet and dry seasons. The radiative effects of aerosol particles will be modelled. Fluxes of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and carbon monoxide will also be measured to determine their role in the ozone budget. Their exchange and budgets will be carefully modelled. A regional and global atmospheric transport model will be used to determine the exchange of Amazonian biogenic and anthropogenic trace gases between the biosphere and atmosphere and their transport from the boundary layer into the free troposphere.
The project contributes to the Large scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA), which is a multidisciplinary research effort and has been jointly designed by Brazilian, European and North-American research communities in response to the world-wide concern about the fate of tropical rain forest and about the global implications of the changes, which the Amazon region has been undergoing. Moreover, the LBA-initiative is a direct response to the Climate Convention, which requires contributions to the global inventory of greenhouse gases.
Fields of science
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistryinorganic compounds
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryvolatile organic compounds
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesmeteorologybiosphera
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesmeteorologytroposphere
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
55020 MAINZ
Germany