The South American summer monsoon brings vast amounts of precipitation to the Amazon basin, providing an important lifeline to its forest and livelihoods. It remains uncertain however how climate change and increasing CO2 levels will affect Amazonian precipitation and forests. As climate models vary widely in their predictions and as our understanding of Amazon climate responses is still limited, significant insight in the Amazon hydrological cycle can be gained from reconstructions of climate responses in the past. One approach to achieve this is by using stable isotopes in precipitation. Naturally water contains different abundances of light and heavy isotopes. As water moves through the hydrological cycle the heavy isotope is preferentially rained out. Isotope ratios in precipitation are therefore a useful recorder of the amount of rainfall. Various natural archives of isotopes in precipitation, like tree rings and speleothems (cave carbonate formations), have been used to reconstruct past climate, but each of these methodologies have their shortcomings. Tree rings are of high time resolution but cover short periods and are affected also by plant physiological processes. In contrast, speleothems cover thousands of years but time resolution is poor. Thus, combining speleothem records and tree ring records permits more faithful reconstructions of precipitation and provides also information about tree responses to changes in CO2. In this proposal, we will build a new partnership between UK and Brazilian scientists working on two important natural proxies: isotopes in tree rings and speleothems to pursue the following primary aims i) to test new - but not yet proven - methods to separate isotope variation in tree rings due to leaf evaporation from the precipitation isotope signal ii) to organise a workshop to assemble a network of scientists working on paleoclimate in the Amazon and adjacent regions, with the aim to improve and spatially integrate Amazon climate reconstructions. The ultimate aim is to gain a better understanding of past and possibly future variation in Amazon precipitation associated with monsoon regime over South America. We will proceed as follows. We first use new tree ring records to measure isotope ratios at specific positions within the cellulose molecule, and, in parallel, in specific wood constituents (e.g., lignin). We then compare these signals with water isotope records of the actual rainfall from the study site covering past seven to eight years to determine what positions or which constituents most accurately record rainfall signals versus leaf evaporation signals. This work will profit from unique precipitation isotope records (at two sites) and high-resolution speleothem records (at one site) which have been and are still being collected by the participating labs over the last years. The work will also include new tree ring data collections and real-time monitoring of tree water use and growth dynamics. The proposed analytical procedures are highly advanced and will benefit from unique specific facilities of the UK isotope labs to measure compound specific mass spectrometry and the use Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometry. The assembled team makes maximum use of the synergies between the groups' expertise and facilities. The UK team has worked for several years on isotopes in tree rings proving these methods can be used to reconstruct Amazon precipitation, while the Brazilian team has successfully used speleothems to reconstruct South American climate over long time scales (past thousands of years). The proposed pilot project will open the possibility to reconstruct more faithfully past precipitation patterns of the Amazon but also to reconstruct the history of leaf enrichment in trees and thus tree responses to a high CO2 world. These are ideal topics for future collaboration.

Seeds are the natural means of species regeneration, the product of pollinator activity, the basis of agriculture, a type of non-woody product and a source of essential protein and vegetable fat (seed oil) with many potential uses (industrial oils, biofuels, cosmetics). Consequently they are one of the mainstays of continuing ecosystem services. The Amazon is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world and the forests near Manaus are considered priority conservation areas. Therefore, ecological research in the region is fundamentally important to the sustainable and innovative use of species and yet the scientific capacity in seed biology in the Amazon region is extremely limited. BESANS will train 20 members of the Amazon Seed Network or students, 9 staff and up to 60 seed/seedling producers in Amazonian species seed biology, and upskilling in conservation biology. The partnership is sector specific, linking plant science institutes and aiming to understanding the seed supply chain (seed development, yield, processing and storage) associated with the nascent seed trade in the Amazonas. Research on seed biology is critical to accessing species for various development activities (food/energy security, ability to mitigate/adapt to climate change) and the collection and conservation of germplasm, the sustainable exploitation of biodiversity and restoration of degraded land are key objectives of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and INCRA (National Institute for Agrarian Reform). We will ensure the development outcome of a much more functional Amazon Native Seed Centre in Manaus, better able to provide high quality seeds of more species for various industries.

A healthy water environment is essential to life. Freshwater ecosystems occupy less than 1% of the Earth's surface, make up only 0.01% of all water, yet host ca. 10% of all known species. They also deliver vital ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and the provision of food, fuel, fibre, and water resources. Besides sustaining a disproportionately high share of global biodiversity, freshwater ecosystems are far more imperilled than terrestrial or marine realms nonetheless remain largely overlooked. This is critical in tropical regions, which are under intensive pressure from land use change, one of the main drivers of global biodiversity loss. In the Amazon, the world's largest and most biodiverse river basin, knowledge on the impacts of anthropogenic activities is largely insufficient. Spreading across nine South American countries, the Amazon is of local and global relevance for the provisioning of myriad ecosystem services that are vital for human well-being. For instance, it is responsible for rainfall generation across South America, global climate regulation, and for 1/5 of the world's freshwater that reaches the oceans. However, much of the Amazon region is now severely threatened - it holds much of the land that could be available for agricultural expansion, which is being facilitated by new strains of crops, climatic change, and infrastructure development such as new and improved roads. As Brazil holds more than 60% of the Amazon, representing 50% of its territory, it has a large responsibility in its management and conservation. One of the most poorly studied elements of the Amazonian freshwater ecosystems is how stream biodiversity is affected by human activities in agriculture landscapes. Small streams are the most extensive and widespread freshwater ecosystem in the basin, connect terrestrial and aquatic systems, host an outstanding biodiversity, support local livelihoods, accumulate multiple impacts that occur in their catchments, and have cascading effects on larger rivers. Therefore, the future of the Amazon river basin is dependent on the integrity of headwater streams. The main objective of my proposal is to further our understanding of the consequences of human impacts on tropical headwater streams, propose solutions to promote their conservation, and influence conservation and land use policy and practice in the Amazon. I will achieve this in four integrated work packages (WP). WP1 includes collecting multispecies (fish and aquatic invertebrates) data from multiple streams in the Brazilian Amazon, building on a large-scale survey I led in 2010 that resulted in important publications (e.g. Science, Journal of Applied Ecology). This repeated assessment will be the first comprehensive evaluation of temporal changes in tropical stream biodiversity in agriculture landscapes. In WP2, I will explore the potential of cutting-edge approaches such as environmental DNA (eDNA) and the quantification of pesticides as valuable tools to advancing our understanding of human pressures in tropical streams. In WP3 I will develop an ambitious and pioneering field experiment on stream fragmentation to better understand the impacts of roads (i.e. culverts and associated infrastructure), one of the most neglected drivers of stream degradation. This will be the first field manipulative experiment to measure the impacts of stream fragmentation by roads in the tropics. In WP4, I will promote transformational change in the Amazon by integrating the information from previous WPs to estimate the extent of stream degradation across the Amazon River basin, develop mechanisms to promote sustainable stream management, and inform policy. I expect to substantially contribute to the science and practice of stream conservation by bringing about a step-change in our understanding in the tropics and linking these findings to urgent policy and management challenges in the Brazilian Amazon.

This proposal spans the three largest biomes in Brazil, the Atlantic and Amazon Forests, and Cerrado savanna. Together these cover >85% of Brazil's territory and include many of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, but all have seen large losses in extent. While the value of their vegetation is increasingly recognized it is unclear to what extent these systems can regenerate or resist the increasing environmental stressors associated with climate change, particularly heating & drying. The motivation of BIO-RED is to understand how these changes affect the ability of intact & regenerating ecosystems to deliver societal benefits. This requires addressing these key questions: (i) How resilient are old-growth & regenerating ecosystems to the key stressors expected from future environmental changes? (ii) Is the destruction a reversible process on time-scales relevant to human society? Thus, will vegetation recover to a similar state as the original and provide similar services? (iii) Will the increasingly hot climate affect the recovery of forests and will modified forests be more vulnerable to future environmental change than intact forests? Answering these questions is only possible with a sound understanding how these systems function and what their sensitivities are. To respond to this need, BIO-RED will apply a multi-scale approach to evaluate the relationships between functions, biodiversity, resilience and regeneration potential in Brazil's three largest biomes in the face of deforestation and climate change threats. Our objectives are to: (i) Determine the biome-wide relationships between target ecosystem functions and biodiversity based on data from the RAINFOR and associated vegetation census networks; (ii) Obtain a detailed mechanistic understanding of the link between biogeochemical cycling, plant nutrient use and species composition and diversity in primary and regenerating systems at the local scale in 3 study landscapes; (iii) Examine tree species' ecophysiological sensitivities to key climate-linked stressors - drought, heat & fire - via real-time monitoring of vegetation functioning and comprehensive trait assessments; (iv) Develop and apply a UAV ("drone")-based imaging spectroscopy platform to map canopy chemistry and functional diversity at tree, plot & landscape scales, and explore the relationships between ecosystem properties & functional diversity; (v) Establish the extent to which biome transitions are already occurring, including forest invasion into cerrado, using both permanent plots and satellite-based monitoring. (vi) Determine the ability of recovering ecosystems and ecosystem management to protect biodiversity & provide key ecosystem services in Brazilian biomes; BIO-RED builds on existing observational networks all led by PIs of this proposal: RAINFOR, GEM, ForestPlots.net (>500 old-growth forest plots), ECOFOR & BIOTA, and others contributed by Brazilian project partners. Most activities will be focused on 3 focal-landscapes, in W Pará (Amazon forest), E Mato Grosso (cerrado), & E São Paulo (Atlantic forest), each with a complex mosaic of old-growth & regenerating systems that is already well sampled by our plot infrastructure and so ideal for intensive work to probe processes & to scale-up via hyperspectral imaging. BIO-RED will improve understanding of the extent to which Brazilian forest & savanna are resisting climate extremes, the extent to which destruction is reversible, & the vulnerabilities of intact & modified vegetation to climate extremes. It will identify the factors that control resilience & recovery of biodiversity & provision of key ecosystem services to people. These will be used to inform ecosystem management & policy options such as REDD+, the Brazilian Forest Code, & Brazilian ecosystem recovery plans. We therefore expect to lay a stronger scientific basis for future regeneration & protection of these systems, and so to improve benefits for human society.

The ecosystems of the dry tropics are in flux: the savannas, woodlands and dry forests that together cover a greater area of the globe than rainforests are both a source of carbon emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation, and also a sink due to the enhanced growth of trees. However, both of these processes are poorly understood, in terms of their magnitude and causes, and the net carbon balance and its future remain unclear. This gap in knowledge arises because we do not have a systematic network of observations of vegetation change in the dry tropics, and thus have not, until now, been able to use observations of how things are changing to understand the processes involved and to test key theories. Satellite remote sensing, combined with ground measurements, offers the ideal way to overcome these challenges, as it can provide regular, consistent monitoring at relatively low cost. However, most ecosystems in the dry tropics, especially savannas, comprise a mixture of grass and trees, and many optical remote sensing approaches (akin to enhanced versions of the sensors on digital cameras) struggle to distinguish changes between the two. Long wavelength radar remote sensing avoids this problem as it is insensitive to the presence of leaves or grass, and also is not affected by clouds, smoke or the angle of the sun, all of which complicate optical remote sensing. Radar remote sensing is therefore ideal to monitor tree biomass in the dry tropics. We have successfully demonstrated that such data can be used to accurately map woody biomass change for all 5 million sq km of southern Africa. In SECO we will create a network of over 600 field plots to understand how the vegetation of the dry tropics is changing. and complement this with radar remote sensing to quantify how the carbon cycle of the dry tropics has changed over the last 15 years. This will provide the first estimates of key carbon fluxes across all of the dry tropics, including the amount of carbon being released by forest degradation and deforestation and how much carbon is being taken up by the intact vegetation in the region. By understanding where these processes are happening, we will improve our knowledge of the processes involved. W will use these new data to improve the way we model the carbon cycle of the dry tropics, and test key theories. The improved understanding, formalised into a model, will be used to examine how the dry tropics will respond to climate change, land use change and the effects of increasing atmospheric CO2. We will then be able to understand whether the vegetation of the dry tropics will mitigate or exacerbate climate change, and we will learn what we need to do to maintain the structure of the dry tropics and preserve its biodiversity. Overall, SECO will allow us to understand how the vegetation of the dry tropics is changing, and the implications of this for the global carbon cycle, the ecology of savannas and dry forests, and efforts to reduce climate change. The data we create, and the analyses we conduct will be useful to other researchers developing methods to monitor vegetation from satellites, and also to those who model the response of different ecosystems to climate and other changes. Forest managers, ecologists and development practitioners can use the data to understand which parts of the world's savannas and dry forests are changing most, and how these changes might be managed to avoid negative impacts that threaten biodiversity and the livelihoods of the 1 billion, mostly poor, rural people who live in this region.