Research project

Due to anthropogenic additives such as the burning of fossil fuels and due to the reduction in the area of terrestrial sinks, the concentration of gases in the atmosphere that cause the so-called ?greenhouse effect? it has not stopped increasing since the Industrial Revolution (Keeling and Whorf, 1999; Spahni et al., 2005). Greenhouse gases absorb the energy that the Earth emits in the infrared (Forster et al., 2007). After absorption, part of this energy is re-emitted to the surface, causing an increase in the average global temperature (Cox et al., 2000). This increase in temperature is known as global warming, which is ultimately responsible for global climate change (IPCC, 2007). This climate change has become one of humanity's main concerns and that is why some countries have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by signing the so-called Kyoto Protocol (Parties to Protocol, Kyoto Protocol, 1997). In order to control greenhouse emissions, it is essential to investigate the exchanges of energy and mass in terrestrial ecosystems, as this will allow the gathering of sufficient knowledge to better understand the mechanisms that control these cycles. For example, most of the CO2 emitted into the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans, but a considerable portion is absorbed by terrestrial ecosystems. In Brazil, CO2 dynamics have been studied in several ecosystems, such as the cerrado (Santos et al., 2004), cerradão and mainly the Amazon forest (Fan et al., 1990; Saleska et al., 2003; Dougthy et al ., 2006). On the other hand, in the Caatinga ecosystem, typical of the Semiarid region of Northeast Brazil, studies of this nature are scarce, despite the Caatinga playing a fundamental role in maintaining regional macroecological processes. Given this context, the present proposal aims to monitor and analyze CO2 flows in preserved and degraded Caatinga areas in Cariri in the state of Paraíba, using micrometeorological techniques, such as the turbulent vortex technique or eddy covariance.