Institute of Bio- und Geosciences (IBG)

Plant Sciences (IBG-2)

Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) promote international cooperation to install of state-of-the-art sensors in the Tambopata tower in the Amazonas

Two researchers from the IBG-2, Forschungszentrum Jülich visited the PUCP and the AndesFlux monitoring tower in Tambopata, managed by the PUCP university, where they installed a novel system to monitor photosynthesis in real time in the forest.

Uwe Rascher and Onno Muller from the Forschungszentrum Jülich installed a system called SIF-Flox, from the company JB Hyperspectral, which measures the fluorescence emitted by vegetation during photosynthesis and sends this information via satellite, making it available for scientific monitoring. The system is intended to provide information at ground surface level for the FLEX mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), to be launched next year, which will remotely monitor fluorescence induced by solar radiation in vegetation at planetary level.

Photosynthesis, the process in which plants absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere, is usually more active during the wet season and slower during dry periods. Monitoring is important because climate change will cause periods of drought to become increasingly severe, affecting the rate of photosynthesis and the biogeochemical cycling of carbon in the region "Precipitation and humidity patterns throughout the Amazon basin could be affected and change. With our instrument measuring along this entire gradient, we hope to understand how the interaction between water and atmospheric drainage as well as the interaction with vegetation will actually change in the future," explains Prof. Rascher.

Before returning to Germany, the researchers participated in an extraordinary session of the Physics Colloquia at the PUCP, where they presented the technology behind the instrument developed and its application in Europe, in industries such as agriculture.

They also invited the students to take care of the environment and ‘think internationally’, since the exchange of information in science is vital, especially in the current context, in which it is urgent to work together to preserve the heritage of our planet.

Video: Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) promote international cooperation to install of state-of-the-art sensors in the Tambopata tower in the Amazonas