Long-Term Ecological Research Program of the Sustainable Amazon Network

The main aim of PELD-RAS is to increase our understanding of the longer-term impacts caused by different local human-driven disturbances, such as understory fires and selective logging, and climate-associated stressors (e.g. El Niño droughts) on Amazonian biodiversity and related ecological processes; as well as to develop a better understanding of forest recovery through time. For this, we have been monitoring a network of 55 study sites distributed along a gradient of human-modified forests, ranging from preserved primary forests (control sites), to disturbed primary forests and also secondary forests in the Santarém region (Pará state), eastern Brazilian Amazon. The results to be obtained through our intensive fieldwork are likely to be of great relevance to environmental public policies in the Brazilian Amazon and, as such, has been followed by a strong component of dissemination to different audiences. PELD-RAS is funded by CNPq-PELD-CAPES (grant code: 441659/2016-0 [phase 1] and 441573/2020-7 [phase 2]; time span: Mar/2017-Feb/2021 [phase 1] & Mar/2021 to Feb/2024 [phase 2]).