An Amazonian Task

MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Sarah Rosengard collects a sample from a stream running through the Tanguro ranch, a soy and corn plantation located in the rainforest of Mato Grosso, Brazil. With her WHOI advisor Valier Galy and partners in the Global Rivers Observatory, Rosengard is investigating how land and water are linked in the global carbon cycle. Because streams on the farm eventually connect to the Amazon River, they provide scientists with a way to understand how land-use changes affect the distribution and make-up of organic carbon as far away as the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo courtesy of Ebre Nascimento, IPAM)