Forest Function

South America The Woods Hole Research Center has been doing basic research in the Amazon Basin since 1988 and is internationally recognized for work in the science of Amazon conservation. Our continuing goal is to use our scientific knowledge to explore new paths to development in the Amazon that will lead to a sustainable future for the region. LEARN MORE »

Boreal North America Boreal forests make up the world's largest terrestrial carbon reservoir, holding over thirty percent of terrestrial carbon. This important region has experienced dramatic change in recent years as climate change has increased warming, drying and fire frequency in the frozen north. Our program in Boreal North America focuses on understanding what the future holds for this important region, and how it will in turn provide feedbacks to global climate change. Learn More »

New England It is already well recognized that forests provide such valuable services as timber, clean water, and wildlife habitat. But scientific evidence of the role that New England forests play in mitigating the effects of global warming could significantly bolster local, national, and global conservation efforts on behalf of these forests. LEARN MORE »

The Center has research programs dealing with forests around the world. Our most aggressive program is in the Amazon Basin of Brazil, the largest contiguous tropical forest zone in the world. We have research underway in the impoverished forest called cerrado in the semi-arid south, in the seasonally dry forest of the Belém and Santarém regions, and in the wet forest of the far western basin. This work extends from the details of physiology of trees to major issues of land and water management to assure the stability of the resources of the region. We and our Brazilian colleagues have the most extensive and best-known research program in the region - working always with local communities toward economic development under circumstances that provide for sustaibed use of the landscape.

This work in the southern hemisphere is complemented by collaborative studies at two New England study sites: one in Howland, Maine, and one at Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts. Our research efforts at these two sites focus on several aspects of the forest carbon cycle. By studying carbon cycling in forests, we hope to be better able to judge the nature and extent of the role played by forests in alleviating global warming through the absorption of atmospheric carbon. Determining the role that New England forests play in mitigating the effects of global warming could significantly bolster local, national, and global conservation efforts on behalf of these forests.

The Center has parallel programs dealing with the forests of the Congo Basin and Russian Asia, where we also have long experience with a host of collaborators and a history of steady success. Here the emphasis is heavily on satellite imagery as the basis for appraising changes in the landscapes.

©Woods Hole Research Center, 2007