The role of African tropical forests on the Greenhouse Gases balance of the atmosphere (AFRICA-GHG)

The role of the African continent in the global carbon cycle, and therefore in climate change, is increasingly recognized. Despite the increasingly acknowledged importance of Africa in the global carbon cycle and its high vulnerability to climate change there is still a lack of studies on the carbon cycle in representative African ecosystems (in particular tropical forests), and on the effects of climate on ecosystem-atmosphere exchange. AFRICA-GHG project wants to focus on these specific objectives : 1. Understand the role of African tropical rainforest on the GHG balance of the atmosphere and revise their role on the global methane and N2O emissions. 2. Determine the carbon source/sink strength of African tropical rainforest in the pre-industrial versus the XXth century by temporal reconstruction of biomass growth with biogeochemical markers 3. Understand and quantify carbon and GHG fluxes variability across African tropical forests (west east equatorial belt) 4. Analyze the impact of forest degradation and deforestation on carbon and other GHG emissions