Hydropower at the Frontier of Urbanisation: Mediating Cosmovisions and the Climate Crisis in the Brazilian Amazon

The Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam on the Lower Xingu River has severely affected the river’s water pulse and threatens a multitude of endemic species and indigenous nations. A great number of dams are expected to be constructed in the years to come in the Amazon river basin which will bring further devastation. Historically, Indigenous and local...

Rootzone storage capacity reveals drought coping strategies along rainforest-savanna transitions

Climate change and deforestation have increased the risk of drought-induced forest-to-savanna transitions across the tropics and subtropics. However, the present understanding of forest-savanna transitions is generally focused on the influence of rainfall and fire regime changes, but does not take into account the adaptability of vegetation...

Tree Sway Time Series of 7 Amazon Tree Species (July 2015–May 2016)

Water stress detection in the Amazon using radar

The Amazon rainforest plays an important role in the global water and carbon cycle, and though it is predicted to continue drying in the future, the effect of drought remains uncertain. Developments in remote sensing missions now facilitate large-scale observations. The RapidScat scatterometer (K_u band) mounted on the International...

Measuring Tree Properties and Responses Using Low-Cost Accelerometers

Trees play a crucial role in the water, carbon and nitrogen cycle on local, regional and global scales. Understanding the exchange of momentum, heat, water, and CO 2 between trees and the atmosphere is important to assess the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Unfortunately, ground measurements of tree properties such as mass...