New review of Whendee Silver's work in Luquillo has been published in Nature! Go here to view the review.

Drought and tropical soil emissions

Tropical forests have been aptly described as the planet’s lungs. Tropical vegetation inhales vast amounts of carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen to the atmosphere, and in so doing, provides a vital climate benefit by absorbing some of the nearly 9 petagrams (1 petagram is 1015 g) of carbon that human activities release into the atmosphere each year1. What’s more, tropical soils influence climate by releasing large amounts of CO2 as a by-product of the decomposition of organic matter, and through several other soil microbial processes that both emit and consume greenhouse gases, including nitrous oxide and methane.

CORY C. CLEVELAND
& BENJAMIN W. SULLIVAN