POSTPONED: Historical fire in Amazonia: charcoal, forest composition, and functional traits
POSTPONED until next term, new date tbc
OCTF seminar followed by drinks – all welcome

Amazonian forests have experienced past periods of reduced precipitation and potentially some degree of pre-Columbian human impact. These historical events may have resulted in fire regimes that differ from those found today, leaving a legacy on forest soils and vegetation. While fire is rare in undisturbed moist tropical forests, this is rapidly changing with forest degradation, fragmentation and deforestation. Understating the past impacts of fire is critical to estimate forest response to contemporary fire. Ted will present results on the spatial variation in historical fire, charcoal, and legacy effects on vegetation through a systematic evaluation of centennial-scale fire and modern vegetation across Amazonia.

Ted Feldpausch is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Exeter and an affiliated professor at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) and UNEMAT, Brazil. He was a post-doc at the University of Leeds under several NERC projects studying the drivers of change in pantropical forests and savannas, assisting in the development of the Amazon Forest Inventory Network (RAINFOR). He completed his MSc and PhD in forest ecology and soil science at Cornell University studying secondary forests and logging in Amazonia.
Date: 2 March 2018, 16:15 (Friday, 7th week, Hilary 2018)
Venue: Dyson Perrins Building, off South Parks Road OX1 3QY
Venue Details: Herbertson Room
Speaker: Dr Ted Feldpausch (University of Exeter)
Organising department: Oxford University Centre for the Environment
Organiser: Jane Applegarth (University of Oxford, Oxford University Centre for the Environment)
Organiser contact email address: jane.applegarth@eci.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Yadvinder Malhi (University of Oxford)
Part of: Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests
Topics:
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://bookwhen.com/octf
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Jane Applegarth