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The PAN tropical investigation of bioGeochemistry and Ecological Adaptation (PANGEA): Scoping a NASA-Sponsored Field Campaign

PANGEA investigates variation between and within Earth’s two largest tropical forests in the Americas and Central Africa while integrating datasets and research from existing and complementary activities across the tropics.

PANGEA’s research questions focus on five thematic areas, Biogeochemical Cycles; Biodiversity; Climate Interactions and Feedbacks; Social-Ecological Systems; and Disturbance Dynamics. Informing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies and biodiversity conservation requires answering three critical questions:

  1. What are the patterns of recent (5-30 years) and ongoing change in tropical forest landscape states, dynamics, and feedbacks, and how do they vary geographically?
  2. What processes control heterogeneity in the vulnerability of tropical forest landscapes to structural and functional change in the Anthropocene?
  3. How will ongoing and projected future changes in tropical forest landscapes alter feedbacks to local, regional, and global climates and social-ecological systems?