|
Professor Amilcare Porporato, from the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke
University, USA, and his research group (Xue Feng, Stefano Manzoni, and
Giulia Vico) visited Fazenda Tamanduā in February 2011.
The main goal of their visit was to setup an eco-hydrological monitoring
station in a preserved area of caatinga, our typical seasonally dry
forest ecosystem. The station will continuously monitor and record soil
moisture and soil temperature in two pits in the caatinga, at three soil
depths, as well as air temperature inside the forest. In addition, solar
radiation components (both radiation actively used by vegetation for
photosynthesis and thermal radiation from the sky and the ground), air
temperature and humidity, wind speed, and rainfall will be monitored
every 15 minutes in a nearby clearing. The entire station is powered by
a solar panel, which is the only possible solution for a site in an
undisturbed area far from power lines. The area selected for the
experiments is also the site of ongoing ecological and biogeochemical
investigations by Profs.
Romulo S.C. Menezes, Antonio C.D. Antonino, and Jarcilene A. Cortez
(Universidade Federal de Pernambuco at Recife).
The data recorded by the
new eco-hydrological station will be collected every two weeks by Raony
G.A. Rodrigues and Yuri Lucas from the Universidade Federal de Campina
Grande at Patos.
The ecohydrological station is designed to continue to collect data for
several years to assess the biophysical processes in this seasonal and
highly variable environment. This long-term monitoring will help answer
questions like: How does seasonal and interannual rainfall variability
propagate into soil moisture and temperature dynamics in the seasonally
dry tropical forest? How do seasonal fluctuations affect
soil-vegetation-atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor fluxes in a
seasonally dry tropical forest? The collection of solar radiation data
will also be fundamental to assess the feasibility of photovoltaic
systems in the area. This research collaboration among Duke University,
the University of Recife, and the Fazenda Tamanduā is a unique
opportunity that will lead to a better understanding of the intriguing
eco-hydrological dynamics of the caatinga, its strategies to optimize
water use and cope with water stress providing stable and biodiverse
life forms in such extreme environmental conditions. This long-term
research benefits from the support of the Instituto Fazenda Tamanduā for
the monitoring station and the US National Science Foundation (CBET
Environmental Sustainability Program). |
