Woods Hole Research Center

July/August 2011: Research Experience for Teachers (RET) in Brazil

Local Falmouth, MA., teacher Celeste Cruse will travel with Research Associates Kathleen Savage and Paul Lefebvre to the Tanguro Ranch (below) in Mato Grosso, Brazil to participate in the Center's ongoing research activities. The objective is to provide an opportunity for Ms. Cruse to participate in research associated with the impacts of land use and land use change in Brazil, with particular emphasis on impacts to the forest carbon cycle, plant and animal species and food webs. This opportunity will give Ms. Cruse hands-on experience in measurement techniques, which she can use with her students to compare and contrast the impacts of land use change on Cape Cod, MA. with regions in Brazil.

July 2011: Studying permafrost thaw and wildfire in Alaska and their effects on the global carbon cycle

Amplified climate warming at high latitudes is thawing permafrost and increasing the prevalence of wildfire in tundra ecosystems. These changes are occurring rapidly and will likely have large impacts on the global carbon cycle. Postdoctoral fellow Mike Loranty is in Alaska participating in several field studies seeking to understand more about permafrost thaw and wildfire, and their effects on the carbon cycle. Working with colleagues from the University of Florida, Dr. Loranty will apply a novel technique to measure differences in permafrost thaw across a range of environmental conditions. Mike will also be participating in a study examining the effects of fire on tundra vegetation communities lead by colleagues at the Marine Biological Laboratory’s Ecosystems Center.

Postdoctoral Fellow Gillian Galford is in Malawi as a representative of the Center’s work in the pantropical region. There, she is attending a conference on “MRVs for Woodland Nations.” WHRC’s first map of aboveground biomass of Malawi will be presented at the conference. In addition to the conference, she is working with partners from the Forestry Resource Institute of Malawi (FRIM), Ministry of Agricultural and Environment, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Land Resources Department, and the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM). While there, Gillian is also bringing together agronomists working on improved fallows, perennial nitrogen fixing legume-trees, and conservation agriculture with their counterparts in forestry and conservation.

Woods Hole Research Center scientists are co-hosting a workshop, Methods for Biomass Estimation and Forest-Cover Mapping in the Tropics, from June 20-24 in Kigali and Ruhengeri, Rwanda. The five-day workshop begins with one day of national policy presentations in Kigali aimed at creating awareness of the operational and technical needs required to establish and monitor a national framework for tropical forest carbon monitoring. It continues in Ruhengeri with a smaller training workshop for technical staff focusing on combined remote sensing and field based forest inventory methods. Associate Scientist Nadine Laporte, Assistant Scientists Glenn Bush, Alessandro Baccini, Wayne Walker, GIS Manager Greg Fiske, and Research Assistant Chloe Starr are leading the work. Partners include the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Rwanda Development Board, Rwanda Environmental Management Authority, and the Rwandan National Forest Authority.

Over half of the world's soil organic carbon is stored in arctic watersheds. The majority of this carbon is held in permafrost. As northern climates warm, permafrost is beginning to thaw, deepening the soil active layer and making the stored carbon available for decomposition to greenhouse gases or for transport downstream. Rivers draining Arctic watersheds carry large amounts of this carbon to the ocean, especially during the spring flood that follows ice melt. Assistant Scientist Robert Spencer, in conjunction with colleagues from the US Geological Survey, has traveled to the mouth of the Yukon River Basin (Alaska) as part of research quantifying how important the spring ice break-up period is with respect to carbon export from land to ocean and also assessing the reactivity of this material.

Many of the mapping and monitoring efforts associated with REDD focus on the big picture of carbon stock and of deforestation trends throughout the tropics. This research expedition is focusing on the third piece necessary to inform a global REDD mechanism – namely, how do people use the land? Through a series of participatory mapping workshops with forest communities in the Congo Basin, Associate Scientist Nadine Laporte, Assistant Scientist Glenn Bush, Senior Scientist Scott Goetz, and Consultant Ian Gray are partnering with local stakeholders to discuss land tenure, forest inventory techniques and local conceptions of well-being that will help determine how REDD financing can support alternative development activities that reduce pressure on the forest.

Associate Scientist Michael Coe, Research Associate Paul Lefebvre, and Graduate Affiliate Marcia Macedo embarked on a month-long research trip to the Upper Xingu River in eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil. While there, the team will work with our partners and colleagues at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) and Marine Biological Laboratory to install new equipment for monitoring soil chemistry and water quantity and quality.