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SUMMARY:El Niño\, tropical forests and the potential instability of the g
 lobal carbon cycle - Professor Yadvinder Malhi\, School of Geography and t
 he Environment\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20200130T161500Z
DTEND:20200130T180000Z
UID:TALK128398@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:83266
DESCRIPTION:At a time of heightened concern at the pace of human-caused cl
 imate change and its impacts on humanity and the biosphere\, one of the ke
 y concerns is evaluating how close the Earth System is to “tipping point
 s”\, where biophysical feedbacks start accelerating climate change feedb
 acks. One of the most iconic of these tipping points is the potential dieb
 ack of tropical forests\, which change regional climate and release substa
 ntial carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. While possible tropical forest die
 back has been the focus on many modelling studies\, there have been a dear
 th of field-based empirical studies looking at the effects of climate extr
 eme events on the tropical forest carbon cycle at global scale. Here we ex
 amine this issue by exploring the impacts of the strong 2015/6 El Nino eve
 nt on a pan-tropical set of forest carbon cycle monitoring plants within t
 he Global Ecosystems Monitoring (GEM) network. The impacts of the El Nino 
 were strongest in eastern Amazonia\, where the dominant effect in intact f
 orests was was a large release of carbon dioxide from soils. However\, sub
 stantial areas of forest in eastern Amazonia also caught fire\, leading to
  large scale tree mortality and longer term forest degradation and carbon 
 emission. Such fires have been increasing in extent as Amazonian climate w
 arms dries\, and the interaction between forest fragmentation\, climate ch
 ange and fire poses the greatest threat to causing substantial loss of Ama
 zonian forest. Conversely\, fire management interventions may help to mini
 mise the risk of a tropical forest tipping point under climate change.
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Department of Geography\, Downing Site
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