SPEAKER: Jeff Chambers UC Berkeley Geography DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 TIME: 4:00 P.M. PLACE: 126 Barrows Hall TITLE: Amazon Forests and the Terrestrial Carbon Sink ABSTRACT: Synthesis studies from old-growth tropical forest plot networks indicate a net pantropical carbon sink of more than 1 Pg C/yr, or ~15% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions.  However a number of confounding factors limit our ability to attribute this observed sink to direct CO2 fertilization of tree growth and forest productivity.  One source of uncertainty centers on determining to what extent forest inventory plots adequately sample natural disturbance and recovery gradients, and the larger landscape successional mosaic.  In addition, forest biomass dynamics, which includes tree growth, recruitment and mortality, can interact in complex ways with changes in forest productivity, tree diversity, and functional traits.   Much can also be gained from studying how tropical forest trees currently metabolize carbon in response to changes in resource supply.  This talk will address these carbon cycle topics in an integrative way, covering more than 20 years of research in Amazon forests. BIOGRAPHY: Jeff Chambers is an Associate Professor, UC Berkeley, Geography Department, and Faculty Scientist, Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  His research is focused on terrestrial ecosystem ecology, tropical forests and climate change, and land-atmosphere interactions.  Methods employed include ecological and physiological field measurements, remote sensing image analysis, and simulation modeling.  Much of his work has taken place in Amazon forests, in close collaboration with Brazil’s National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA).