About AMAZALERT
AMAZALERT examined how global and regional climate and land-use changes will impact Amazonian forests, agriculture, waters, and people; and how these impacts feed back onto climate.
“The AMAZALERT project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 282664, and was co-funded by many national agencies an institutes.”
Research Recommendations
- Investigating ecosystem functioning is still crucial
Future research on understanding the risks of Amazon forest degradation should focus on the dependence of forest stability on the balance and interactions of CO2 fertilisation, temperature increase, drought and fire dynamics.
- Extensive monitoring of the state of Amazonia should be stimulated
Furthermore, basin-wide research should emphasise the understanding of regional variability in vulnerability; building of comprehensive time series and databases on the condition of the forests, regional climate and socio-economic indicators; and identifying actions that maximise the resilience to climate change of the ecosystem services provided by forests.
- Scientific results need to be shared with policy in an efficient way
Research is needed on improving the science-policy interface and the uptake of state-of-the-art science in policy making. Novel methods are needed to involve decision makers.
- Understanding of land-use change needs to be refined
The complexity of interactions between multiple drivers acting at multiple scales needs to be studied so as to better understand and model the dynamics of land-use change.
Read further in the AMAZALERT Final project summary for policy makers