Abstract ID: 711

Permanent Plots and Amazon Biomass Dynamics

Results from a network of permanent plots located across Amazonia have been used to suggest that mature Amazon forests have been gaining biomass, and that they have been growing faster. These results have been interpreted as suggesting that increasing productivity has been driving a substantial carbon sink. Alternative hypotheses are that the net biomass gains in plots are the result of inadequate sampling of disturbance-recovery processes, or alternatively of simply having sampled in a relatively climatically benign period. We use the expanded coverage of the current RAINFOR plot network to describe recent biomass dynamics across Amazon forests and to explore the predictions of the different explanatory frameworks.

Session:  Biodiversity - Permanent plot networks for inventory of biodiversity and carbon stocks: integrating taxonomic and ecosystem objectives.

Presentation Type:  Oral