Peru’s rainforests hold some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth and one way to determine how these tropical forest ecosystems respond to climate and land use disturbances is to assess how they flip between being sources or sinks of carbon to the atmosphere. Doing so requires a detailed accounting of carbon dioxide and methane over large spatial scales using advanced monitoring systems called flux towers. Along the western Amazon, Ponitifica Catolica University maintains four high precision, 50-meters tall gas flux towers (AndesFlux). The AndesFlux principal investigator, Professor Eric Cosio, shown above, invited OU Professors Filley and Xiao to one of the tower sites in Tambopata, Peru. Over a week-long visit in July 2024, they discussed adoption of OU research methods, data sharing, and collaborative proposal development. A trip is scheduled for late 2024 to visit the AndeFlux tower in San Martin, Peru which is near the OU PERU Hub research sites to explore linking the two project’s goals.
