Manaus: An experiment that is taking place deep inside the Amazon could provide a glimpse into what will happen to the largest rainforest on Earth when carbon dioxide levels rise. It is a test to see how the world's lungs will fare under global warming.

According to Carlos Quesada, one of the project coordinators, "an open-air laboratory that will allow us to understand how the rainforest will behave in future climate change scenarios," the AmazonFACE project, which is jointly funded by Brazil and the United Kingdom.

In northwest Brazil, 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Manaus, Quesada is situated at the base of a tall metal tower that sticks out of the surrounding jungle.

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It will "pump" CO2 into a circle of sixteen additional towers, simulating levels that might occur due to global warming.

A researcher at a Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology-affiliated institute studying the Amazon asks, "How will the rainforest react to the rising temperature, the reduction in water availability, in a world with more carbon in the atmosphere?"

The Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) technology has already been used to study the effects on forests in Australia, the US, and the UK, but never in a tropical rainforest.

Six "carbon rings" pumping CO2, one of the factors contributing to global warming, at a level 40 to 50 percent higher than it is now will exist by 2024. Researchers will examine the cycles of water, nutrients, soil, leaves, and roots over the course of ten years.

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We will be able to make more precise predictions about how the Amazon rainforest's capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon will contribute to the fight against climate change. Additionally, it will assist us in understanding how the effects of these changes will affect the rainforest, according to David Lapola, a researcher at the University of Campinas who is coordinating the project with Quesada.

Where the Amazon rainforest once thrived, the increase in atmospheric carbon may cause the formation of grassy plains, or savanna, with vegetation that is better suited to higher temperatures and longer droughts.

However, CO2 may also "fertilise" the forest, temporarily increasing its resistance to these changes.

This year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the UN again called for bold action to slow global warming.

In the decades following 2030, global warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, causing an irreversible loss of ecosystems, according to the organization's most recent report from March.
The consequences of human-caused deforestation in the Amazon coincide with global warming.

Thomas Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre's seminal 2018 study revealed that the Amazon is rapidly approaching a tipping point where savannas start to replace rainforest.

They claimed that would occur if 20 to 25 percent of the Amazonian region was deforested. Deforestation is currently at 15% of the global average.

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The British Meteorological Service (MET office) and the Foreign Office support AmazonFACE, which is coordinated by the University of Campinas and the Brazilian Ministry of Science.

James Cleverly, the foreign secretary of the United Kingdom, visited the facilities this week and announced an additional donation to the project of 2 million pounds ($2.4 million), which has already received 7.3 million pounds from the country since 2021. Brazil has contributed 32 million reais ($6.4 million) in total.