RainForest-GHG · Rain Forest GreenHouse Gases

Rain Forest GreenHouse Gases

Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are three major greenhouse gases (GHG), whose increasing concentrations are responsible for global warming. Since 1750, the start of the industrial era, atmospheric concentrations of CO2, CH4 and N2O have dramatically risen, causing unprecedented changes in Earth’s climate. Tropical forests play a pivotal role in the global carbon balance and in natural climate change mitigation since they account for 68% of global forest carbon stocks and represent up to 30% of global soil carbon stocks. However, large uncertainties remain regarding the long term sustainability of tropical forests carbon sink capacity and, more especially, their role in GHG exchanges. The overall goal of the research project “RainForest-GHG” was to advance knowledge in the understanding of GHG sink or source potentials of a tropical rainforest and determine the contributions of the main ecosystem compartments, i.e. soil, tree, atmosphere, to GHG fluxes. Specifically, I aimed at (i) developing a new automated system for simultaneous continuous measurements of GHG, i.e. CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes to examine the temporal variations in GHG fluxes in soil and tree stems, (ii) estimating the relative contribution of each ecosystem compartment to the measured GHG, and (iii) determining environmental drivers responsible for the spatio-temporal variations in GHG fluxes.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union