Long-term forest dynamics in Peruvian Amazonia: a research project at the University of Leeds

Amazonian forest ecosystems are changing. Currently they appear to be growing faster than they did in the mid-20th century; the rate of turnover of individual plants is increasing; and their composition is also changing (for example, lianas are becoming more abundant). In this project, based in the School of Geography, we are using pollen analysis and other palaeoecological techniques to work out how Amazonian ecosystems have changed in the past, to help to put the current changes into perspective.

We are focusing on generating high-resolution records of the past 1000-2000 years that capture changes on the timescales more usually considered by ecologists, of decades to centuries (direct monitoring of rainforests has only been carried out for the past ~40 years). A high-resolution palaeoecological approach requires analysis of very rapidly accumulating sequences of peat or lake sediment. Appropriate sequences have recently been discovered in Peru, close to the city of Iquitos, by some of our project partners, and following our first fieldwork season we are currently analysing a number of them.

Fieldwork and analyses were initially funded by NERC (Grant no. NE/H011773/1) and are continuing with NERC-funded PhD studentships and a grant from the Royal Society. We are indebted to the support of our project partners and friends at IIAP (Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana), The University of Turku, and The Open University, as well as to many other colleagues and friends elsewhere.