📋 Tender Overview
A recent study of the IIAP and its US counterparts alerts about the effects of climatic variations in Amazonian basquers, which could go from storing carbon to release it.The Aguajal de Quistococha, an Amazon ecosystem near Iquitos and IIAP Research Center, lost its ability to act as a natural sink of carbon dioxide (CO2). For years, this forest captured large amounts of carbon, but recent climatic variations modified that function.
This was confirmed by a study of the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP), an entity attached to the Ministry of Environment, in collaboration with researchers from the United States. The results were published in the Geophysical Research Letters scientific journal.
Between 2018 and 2019, this ecosystem - dominated by La Palma Mauritia Flexuosa (Aguaje) - absorbed around 460 grams of carbon per square meter each year. In 2022, however, the researchers found that the ecosystem stopped capturing CO2 significantly, registering an almost neutral balance, despite not having suffered significant anthropogenic interventions such as logging or burning.
Although these processes are part of the nature of the forests, the Aguajal de Quistococha in the Peruvian Amazon showed a particular behavior in 2022. Researchers attribute this behavior to photoinhibition, a process in which plants reduce their photosynthetic activity due to environmental stress, caused by the combination of dry soils and high solar irradiation. This double pressure - history and light - decreased the capacity of the ecosystem to fix carbon, which increases its vulnerability to climate change.
The fact that an ecosystem without great human alterations loses its essential ecological role only due to the effect of the weather is alarming, said Dr. Jeffrey Wood, principal author of the study and researcher of the School of Natural Resources of the University of Missouri. This finding reveals a high sensitivity of the Amazonian peat bounces, much greater than we estimated.
Aguajales accumulate carbon for thousands of years and support global climate balance. The study warns that, if droughts and periods of high solar radiation intensify due to climate change, these ecosystems could go from being sinks to carbon emitters, aggravating global warming.
The IIAP, since 2017, records the behavior of the Aguajal de Quistococha in its station Carbon Intensive Monitoring Site-Qistococha (SMIC-Q), by using sensors that measure greenhouse gas flows, such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor. This research site is part of the International Amerofux monitoring network.
The IIAP develops this research with institutions such as the USDAFORT Service, the University of Missouri, the University of Minnesota and Arizona State University, among others.
More information at Wood_Articulo_2025.pdf
