The Aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa) palm peat forests occur throughout the Amazon basin and contain large stores of Carbon (C). The Aguaje species produces palm fruit that are an important local food source and are often destructively harvested. Becauase of this, these important ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to degradation leading to irregularity in their C cycling.

Since 2017 the Quistococha Intensive Carbon Monitoring Site has been collecting data to better understand how these systems fit within local, regional and international biogeochemical cycling. The site is near Iquitos, Peru and is centered around an Eddy Covariance flux tower, which measures ecosystem level exchange of greenhouse gases. At the sub-ecosystem level a continuous chamber system measures fluxes from the soil and stems of the dominant tree species within the footprint of the tower.

The annual C cycles are strongly tied to the wet and dry seasonality that is seen within the water table of the local site. Methane emissions are strongest during the wet season and decrease into the dry season, when carbon dioxide emissions from the soils increase.

This project is a collaboration hosted by the Peruvian Amazon Research Institute (IIAP) with contributions from the U.S. Forest Service, University of Minnesota, Michigan Technological University, University of Missouri, and others.