Brazilian scientists launched the ‘AmazonFACE’ project near Manaus

Brazilian scientists have launched the AmazonFACE (Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment) project near Manaus, aiming to study how the Amazon rainforest will respond to future atmospheric CO₂ levels.

• Brazilian scientists have launched the AmazonFACE (Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment) project near Manaus, aiming to study how the Amazon rainforest will respond to future atmospheric CO₂ levels.

Full form of FACE

• FACE, whose full form is Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment, will provide Quesada and his team of scientists with the opportunity to study the effects of increased carbon dioxide levels on vast areas of rainforest and surrounding vegetation.
• This project is supported by the Brazilian federal government and the United Kingdom.

Purpose of ‘AmazonFACE’

• Its purpose is to simulate future environments and assess how tropical forests adapt to rising CO₂, temperature, and humidity.
• During baseline testing, sensors record the forest’s response to changing conditions every 10 minutes, showing how tree leaves absorb carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen and water vapor in response to rain, storms, and sunlight.
• With continuous monitoring of CO₂ absorption (every 10 minutes), understanding carbon absorption capacity, photosynthesis, and forest resilience.
• In the Brazilian Amazon, scientists have built a "time machine" that will simulate future atmospheric conditions by pumping carbon dioxide into the rainforest canopy to find out how the biome adapts.
• After the baseline testing, scientists will fumigate trees with carbon dioxide in three rings consistent with climate forecasts for the coming decades, while the rest will serve as control samples.
• At the climate conference to be held from November 10–21 in the city of Belém, where the Amazon Basin meets the Atlantic Ocean, policymakers will grapple with the uncertainty of how the rainforest can adapt to a warming planet and changing environment.

Amazon Rainforest

• The Amazon biome is a moist, broadleaf tropical rainforest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. The basin spans an area of 7 million square km (2.7 million square miles).
• This area includes territories of nine countries and 3,344 indigenous areas. Most of the forest, 60%, is in Brazil, followed by 13% in Peru, 10% in Colombia, and smaller portions in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
• One of the first-level administrative regions of four countries is named "Amazonas," and France uses the name "Guiana Amazonian Park" for the protected rainforest area of French Guiana.
• Amazonia is the largest river basin in the world, and its forest extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the tree line of the Andes in the west. This forest begins along a 200-mile (320-kilometer) stretch at the Atlantic Ocean and extends up to a 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) wide belt where the lowlands meet the Andean foothills.

A project decades in the making

The project started in 2015 with baseline measurements of the working conditions of the forest before CO2 enrichment. In 2022, the construction and testing of the FACE rings began. Cranes installed next to each ring provide access to the treetops for measurements. The construction of the rings was completed in 2024, and the experiment, which will run for ten years, began. 

Sensors record the forest’s response to changing conditions every ten minutes, showing how foliage absorbs CO2 while releasing oxygen and water vapor in response to weather conditions, forestry engineer Gustavo Carvalho said.

“If a model predicts a certain amount (of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) in 2050 or 2060, then we’ll increase to that amount in these plots to try to understand how the forest responds,” Carvalho told Reuters. “We’ll have a small plot here in the forest that we can enter and know what will happen in the future.”

The AmazonFACE team has published dozens of articles since 2013 in journals such as Nature, Science and Plant-Environment Interactions. AmazonFACE is supported by the Brazilian government and the U.K.