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Project Amazonia: Monitoring

While solutions can be plotted and implemented with the best of intentions, the success of the solution is impossible to gauge without a comprehensive assessment of its effects.  Already there are massive projects that are being implemented to evaluate situations within the Amazon Rainforest.  SIVAM is perhaps the largest monitoring project currently being tackled in the Amazon Rainforest.  Using a network of radar stations and airplanes, SIVAM patrols the Amazon Rainforest, monitoring land usage and tracking illegal activities.

Below you will find a synopsis of the monitoring solutions Project Amazonia has developed.  You can explore the various monitoring solutions in detail by clicking on the links within the synopses or by clicking on the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Land Monitoring

One of the problems with monitoring the land is that the vegetation above ground does not necessarily reflect the status of the soil.  For example, a portion of land can be deforested, yet the ground will still show relatively normal concentrations of nutrients for at least a couple of months.  Alternatively, trees can be planted on poor quality soil stuffed with fertilizers, but that does not mean the soil is in any decent condition. 

However, since life in the Amazon depends on the soil, Project Amazonia researched how one would go about testing the soil for specific properties.  Since pH is related to ion solubility, ion concentration influences plant health and contaminants (i.e. mercury) harm plant life, these were the characteristics focused on. 

Water Monitoring

As the major medium by which ions, nutrients and contaminants are transferred throughout the Amazon Rainforest, it is important to be able to monitor the waterways and precipitation rates in the Amazon.  While the sheer quantity of water makes some monitoring schemes of Amazonian waterways impractical, a variety of methods can be used to monitor fish, sediment transfer, rainfall, evapotranspiration and other properties.

 Because it is impractical to actually go to the Amazon and try to measure properties of water, most of the monitoring techniques researched involve remote sensing equipment.  These primarily fall into two categories, overhead sensing and land sensing.  Overhead monitoring would be largely compatible with SIVAM, while monitoring from land level would be done with equipment left within the Amazon, sending data to satellites. 

Flora Monitoring

 Considering the flora is the object of preservation projects, it is critical to understand the effects solutions are having on its health.  Project Amazonia researched the possibility of three primary methods for monitoring the Amazon's flora: measuring overgrowth density and complexity, using epiphytes as an indicator species, and taking literfall measurements.

By measuring overgrowth density and complexity associations between animal and plant habitats can be extrapolated.  Densities and complexities would be compared among many different areas to generate a model for an ideal density/complexity model.

 Epiphytes are a class of flora that are far more vulnerable to changes in their environments than typical Amazonian trees and shrubs.  Because epiphytes are affected by changes in the environment (i.e. increased CO2 levels) more strongly than surrounding flora, they would act as an effective indicator/warning species for potential dangers.

Litterfall is the plant matter that falls to the ground to decay and be reabsorbed into the ecosystem.  This organic matter can be analyzed to determine its chemical composition and the relative concentration of various elements and ions.  As well, the change in pure weight of the organic matter that is collected can be measured to determine activity in the area (i.e. deforestation).

Fauna Monitoring

As the highest members of the food chain, the chemical composition of the fauna in the Amazon is indicative of the chemical composition in its surroundings.  For example, toxins in water accumulate in the flora that absorbs it.  The fauna that eats the flora needs to eat a lot of flora to stay healthy, therefore the toxins in the flora accumulate in the fauna.  Amphibians, on top of being in a fairly high trophic level, absorb toxins through their skin while soaking in the water.  By doing blood tests on amphibians, therefore, contaminants in the water can be detected.

While not usually used to test for contaminants, the behavioral patterns of bats can be monitored to determine the state of the surrounding rainforest.  For example, it has been determined that bats will go into hibernation if there is a significant lack of food.  Since bats are so common in the Amazon, they would make ideal species to monitor.

Monitoring Laws

 While monitoring techniques are important to analyze solution success, unless the laws revolving around monitoring implementation are understood the ideas are not applicable.  Therefore, Project Amazonia researched the Brazilian laws surrounding the application of foreign monitoring programs in the Amazon Basin.

The key to getting approval for a monitoring scheme in the Amazon Rainforest (Decree No. 98830) is to make the suggestion palatable to the Brazilian government.  By getting pre-approval by a major organization within Brazil and demonstrating how the monitoring techniques will be beneficial to the state of Brazil, the odds of a proposal being granted approval are increased. 

Environmental Modeling

 Data gathered from monitoring the rainforest are pieces of a very complex puzzle.  In order for any information to have significance, it must agree with data collected from other monitoring projects.  In order to tie all lose ends together, it is necessary to implement a modeling program that can analyze the importance of the data gathered.  

 

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