During the current historic drought in the Amazon region and in parallel with the Science and Technology Week, the Annual Scientific Steering Committee of the research program met in Manaus last week (from October 16th to 20th). AmazonFACE. At this meeting, held before the start of the research itself, the organization discussed its new scientific plan and the areas of study to be privileged.
CScientists from different countries developed the scientific questions to be answered and the methodologies to be used. “Although we have hypotheses, we simply don’t know what will happen, how and if they [the plants] will adapt,” said Izabela Aleixo, postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (Inpa), explaining that the rapid An increase in CO2 concentration is a condition to which modern-day vegetation has never had to adapt. To discover this, according to Aleixo, the only way is experimental. “AmazonFACE is a program dedicated to looking through a window into the future and trying to understand our future, what will happen to the Amazon,” said Carlos Alberto Quesada, program coordinator at Inpa.
In addition to discussing scientific topics, administrative issues were also addressed, such as the project statute, its code of conduct and its organizational chart. The five days of the meeting defined the program's new scientific plan, which has already changed, in relation to the original 2014 plan, in terms of the division of research areas and the scientific questions to be taken into consideration. Ian Hartley, director of the scientific committee, says that “the key and hardest work is carried out here in Manaus, and also in other universities across Brazil, but the scientific steering committee seeks to support this work by advising and guiding what it can”.
There was a welcome dinner and a visit to the experimental site. In the words of David Lapola, director of AmazonFACE at Unicamp epresearcher at the Center for Meteorological and Climate Research Applied to Agriculture (Cepagri), the The objective was to update the scientific plan. "First we wanted to inspire people by bringing them here to see the experiment.” Discussions began on the 18th with a handover ceremony for the Met Office (United Kingdom's National Weather Service) towers, represented by Joe Davies, the agency's climate diplomacy manager, for Inpa, represented by Marina Anciães, the institute's research director. Inpa hosts the program and financed the construction of the first towers. “This is an official gesture that consolidates sovereignty a little more national level in research on the Amazon”, commented Marko Monteiro, professor at the Unicamp Geosciences Institute and leader of the socio-environmental research area.
Osvaldo Moraes, director of the Department for Climate and Sustainability of the Secretariat of Strategic Policies and Programs of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation was also present at the event. On this opportunity, the committee was able to see the first two tower rings built and see them from the top of a 45 meter high crane, which also serves as a research tool and not just for the construction of the rings. “Science is not done by straight-headed people,” said Moraes when talking about how the idea for AmazonFACE was born. “You have to have revolutionary thinking to think revolutionary science”, added Moraes.
The carbon dioxide to be released in the rings does not yet have financing. There is material only for the testing phase. And on the other hand, the entire structure to be used in the experiment is guaranteed. “The cost of carbon dioxide is difficult to estimate now, but it will be tens of millions of reais, and could reach hundreds,” said Bruno Takeshi, operational manager and project manager.
“The carbon storage process is a slow process and so we need ten years of experimentation to see any significant change,” said Lapola. “We are now looking for partners to help us secure a ten-year supply of CO2,” said Andy Wiltshire, Earth Science and Mitigation Lead at the Met Office. “We have to guarantee the benefit of this science for everyone here in Brazil, a benefit that, in fact, will be advantageous for the whole world”, he added.
Around 70 people participated in the meetings, including members of the scientific committee, doctoral students, post-doctoral students, collaborating researchers, advisors and representatives of the project's funders (Financier of Studies and Projects, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom and the Met Office), from the foundation that manages the resources received by the British government, Fundação Aurthur Bernardes (Funarbe), from Inpa and Unicamp.
Experiment
AmazonFACE, an experiment involving increasing the concentration of CO2 in a forest area, is unique in the world. This effort, conceived 12 years ago, promises to create a large open-air laboratory, as the scientists involved say. With British funding of 7 million pounds (approximately R$42 million), at the end of 2022, it was possible to begin construction of the first rings necessary to carry out the study. In total there will be six rings. The assembly of the others and accommodation for scientists was made possible thanks to funding from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in the amount of R$ 32 million and obtained through Finep.
The combination of the experiment in the forest with the use of mathematical models (ecosystem models) promises to provide key answers to understanding the future of the Amazon Forest amid climate change. For the first time, FACE technology (free-air CO2 enrichment, increased concentration of carbon dioxide in an open space) is applied in a hyperdiverse tropical forest such as the Amazon, something cited by experts in the field as necessary since the 90s.
To understand how the forest will respond to the increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, 35-meter-high towers were designed, which exceed the tree canopy. In total, there will be 16 towers arranged within circles of 30 meters in diameter and a central tower, in which the sensors will be located. On each plot (“lot” in English), there will be a 45 meter high crane.
The complete experiment consists of six plots. In three of them, air enriched with CO2 will be released. The other three will serve as controls. In addition to the data to be collected during the experiment, data collected in 2015, in the same areas, will be used. Scientists have also developed a type of algorithm, an ecosystem model called Caetê, to better predict the future of the Amazon rainforest.
Read more:
Increased CO2 in the Amazon may have a greater impact than deforestation on decreasing rainfall
An experiment of unprecedented scope in the Amazon
Watch the video about assembling the towers:
