Working within a chronosequence of ten multi-aged secondary forest fallows spanning 14 years of regrowth, my research focuses on vegetation and soil changes following abandonment of degraded pastures in Central Amazonia, Brazil. The research project consists of two major components: (1) baseline inventory of soils and vegetation; (2) multi-year treatment assessment consisting of: (a) bi-monthly soil water content to 2 m depth; (b) tri-monthly LAI measurements; (c) annual measurement of soil and vegetation nutrient and carbon stocks, forest structure, and species inventory.

The major research questions by individual forest and the overall chronosequence are, (1) what are the rates of carbon and nutrient accumulation in soils and recoverying fallow vegetation; (2) what are the soil nutrient limitations to vegetation growth (P, Ca, P x Ca); (3) can surface Ca be moved deeper into the Ca deficient soil profile through gypsum (CaSO4) additions; (4) do higher deep Ca stores enhance soil water uptake and above- and below-ground carbon accrual; (5) how does forest structure (e.g. DBH, stem frequency, LAI) change with time after pasture abandonment; (6) how does soil water storage differ among different aged forest; and (7) how does the depth of soil nutrient uptake by growing plants change with time? This research will allow me to develop management recommendations to accelerate forest recovery on degraded pastures.