Testing the responses of forests and trees to elevated temperatures around the Boiling River as a window into the future of tropical forests

This project investigates how rising air temperatures affect mature trees in the lowland Amazon rainforest. In this project, researchers will compare adult trees growing at different temperatures in the rainforests surrounding Peru’s “Boiling River” and will identify the adaptations that the trees are using to avoid heat stress. This will be one of the first-ever field studies to test for adaptations to rising temperatures in adult rainforest trees, thus filling an important gap in knowledge about the ability of trees to respond to changes in their environment, as well as the consequences of rising global temperatures for rainforest diversity, structure, and function.

This study will increase our knowledge about how environmental change affects tropical tree species and it will provide valuable information that will be used to inform predictions and conservation management strategies. The results of this research will also be integrated into diverse environmental education initiatives to increase public awareness about the ecology and conservation of tropical rainforests and tropical trees.

The Boiling River is a unique geothermal river in Peru’s west-central Amazon where river waters are heated to near-boiling temperatures, raising air temperatures in the surrounding forests by several degrees and creating what is likely the hottest closed-canopy forest on Earth. At the Boiling River, researchers will conduct a suite of ecological and physiological studies to determine the ability of different tree species to adapt and acclimate to elevated temperatures, which match the future conditions predicted for much of the Amazon.

Specifically, researchers will 1) create high-resolution maps of the climate and environmental conditions in the forests around the Boiling River; 2) census and measure the functional traits of trees growing at different temperatures along the river in order to characterize changes in functional diversity and composition in relation to temperature; and 3) compare the morphology and physiology of tree species in relation to their realized thermal niches. This research will augment and transform our knowledge about the effects of rising global temperatures on the Amazon’s diverse tropical forests and will provide data that can help to parameterize models predicting future climate change.

In addition, the research team will run a suite of educational activities aimed at raising public awareness about the impacts of global change on tropical forests. Specifically, the researchers will develop new teaching materials and active education activities for K-12 and university students and will disseminate the data and results to a broad public audience through various outlets.

This research is co-funded by the Population and Community Ecology program in BIO/DEB and the Integrative Ecological Physiology Program in BIO/IOS.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.