Foster Brown
A5005999574- Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Forest ecology and management
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Environmental and biological studies
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Geography and Environmental Studies
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Remote Sensing in Agriculture
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
- Plant and animal studies
- Agricultural and Food Sciences
- Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Flood Risk Assessment and Management
- Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
- Forest Management and Policy
- Solar Radiation and Photovoltaics
- Environmental Sustainability and Education
- Tree-ring climate responses
- Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation
- Forest Biomass Utilization and Management
- Geochemistry and Geologic Mapping
- Climate variability and models
- Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
Woodwell Climate Research Center
2016-2025
Universidade Federal do Acre
2014-2024
Combat Medical (Spain)
2023
Amazon (United States)
2023
Instituto Florestal
2023
Agence des Aires Marines Protégées
2023
Amazon (Germany)
2023
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2008
DuPont (United States)
1999
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
1998-1999
Abstract In 2005, large sections of southwestern Amazonia experienced one the most intense droughts last hundred years. The drought severely affected human population along main channel Amazon River and its western tributaries, Solimões (also known as in other countries) Madeira Rivers, respectively. river levels fell to historic low navigation these rivers had be suspended. did not affect central or eastern Amazonia, a pattern different from El Niño–related 1926, 1983, 1998. choice rainfall...
The accurate mapping of forest carbon stocks is essential for understanding the global cycle, assessing emissions from deforestation, and rational land-use planning. Remote sensing (RS) currently key tool this purpose, but RS does not estimate vegetation biomass directly, thus may miss significant spatial variations in structure. We test stated accuracy pantropical maps using a large independent field dataset.Tropical forests Amazon basin. permanent archive plot data can be accessed at:...
Thermal sensitivity of tropical trees A key uncertainty in climate change models is the thermal forests and how this value might influence carbon fluxes. Sullivan et al. measured stocks fluxes permanent forest plots distributed globally. This synthesis plot networks across climatic biogeographic gradients shows that dominated by high daytime temperatures. extreme condition depresses growth rates shortens time resides ecosystem killing under hot, dry conditions. The effect temperature worse...
Abstract The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it unclear which forests are the most vulnerable extreme events. Forests with hotter and drier baseline conditions may protected by prior adaptation, or more because they operate closer physiological limits. Here we report that in South American climates experienced greatest impacts of 2015–2016 El Niño, indicating greater vulnerability temperatures drought. long-term, ground-measured tree-by-tree responses 123...
Understanding the capacity of forests to adapt climate change is pivotal importance for conservation science, yet this still widely unknown. This knowledge gap particularly acute in high-biodiversity tropical forests. Here, we examined how Americas have shifted community trait composition recent decades as a response changes climate. Based on historical trait-climate relationships, found that, overall, studied functional traits show shifts less than 8% what would be expected given observed...
The carbon sink capacity of tropical forests is substantially affected by tree mortality. However, the main drivers death remain largely unknown. Here we present a pan-Amazonian assessment how and why trees die, analysing over 120,000 representing > 3800 species from 189 long-term RAINFOR forest plots. While mortality rates vary greatly Amazon-wide, on average are as likely to die standing they broken or uprooted-modes with different ecological consequences. Species-level growth rate single...
Drought-induced wildfires have increased in frequency and extent over the tropics. Yet, long-term (greater than 10 years) responses of Amazonian lowland forests to fire disturbance are poorly known. To understand post-fire forest biomass dynamics, assess time required for fire-affected recover pre-disturbance levels, we combined 16 single with 182 multiple census into a unique large-scale dataset across Brazilian Amazonia. We quantified biomass, mortality wood productivity burned plots along...
Some coupled land-climate models predict a dieback of Amazon forest during the twenty-first century due to climate change, but human land use in region has already reduced cover. The causation behind is complex, and includes economic, institutional, political demographic factors. Pre-eminent among these factors road building, which facilitates access natural resources that beget fragmentation. While official government projects have received considerable attention, unofficial building by...
From mid‐July to mid‐October 2005, an environmental disaster unfolded in the trinational region of Madre de Dios, Peru; Acre, Brazil; and Pando, Bolivia (the MAP region), southwestern Amazonia. A prolonged dry season human‐initiated fires resulted smoke pollution affecting more than 400,000 persons, fire damage over 300,000 hectares rain forest, US$50 million direct economic losses. Indicatorrs suggest that anomalous drought conditions could occur again this year. In May river levels, were...
Large uncertainties still dominate the hypothesis of an abrupt large-scale shift Amazon forest caused by climate change [Amazonian dieback (AFD)] even though observational evidence shows and regional changing. Here, we assess whether mitigation or adaptation action should be taken now, later, not at all in light such uncertainties. No action/later would result major social impacts that may influence migration to large Amazonian cities through a causal chain degradation leading lower...
Abstract Aim Water availability is the major driver of tropical forest structure and dynamics. Most research has focused on impacts climatic water availability, whereas remarkably little known about influence table depth excess soil processes. Nevertheless, given that plants take up from soil, supply are likely to be modulated by conditions. Location Lowland Amazonian forests. Time period 1971–2019. Methods We used 344 long‐term inventory plots distributed across Amazonia analyse effects...
The objective of this paper is to present a method for mapping burnt areas in Brazilian Amazonia using Terra MODIS data. proposed approach based on image segmentation the shade fraction images derived from MODIS, non‐supervised classification algorithm followed by an editing procedure minimizing misclassifications. Acre State, focus study, located western region and undergoing tropical deforestation. extended dry season 2005 affected creating conditions extensive forest fires addition...
Fire is one of the main factors directly impacting Amazonian forest biomass and dynamics. Because Amazonia’s large geographical extent, remote sensing techniques are required for comprehensively assessing fire impacts at landscape level. In this context, Light Detection Ranging (LiDAR) stands out as a technology capable retrieving direct measurements vegetation vertical arrangement, which can be associated with aboveground biomass. This work aims, first time, to quantify post-fire changes in...
The intensification of extreme climate events is already a reality throughout the world. In Brazilian Amazon, most frequent are linked to droughts and floods. This study expanded documentation on floods, water crisis, fires forest in state Acre, southwestern Amazon. We analyzed weather municipal state-of-emergency public-calamity decrees, reports people who faced impacts these events, scientific articles, press reports. results show that Acre recorded 202 between 1987 2023, with an...
SUMMARY Literature on environmental science and management endorses crossing boundaries between disciplines, types of organizations countries for conservation. A literature review interdisciplinarity, interorganizational networks international cooperation highlights their justifying rationales strategic practices. Crossing implies substantial challenges to managing collaboration itself, notably politics uncertainty. Challenges become compounded when multiple simultaneously, here illustrated...
Climate, species composition, and soils are thought to control carbon cycling forest structure in Amazonian forests. Here, we add a demographics scheme (tree recruitment, growth, mortality) recently developed non-demographic model - the Trait-based Forest Simulator (TFS) – explore roles of climate plant traits controlling productivity structure. We compared two sites with differing climates (seasonal versus aseasonal precipitation) traits. Through an initial validation simulation, assessed...