Daily life of trees in the amazon jungle

At six in the morning the first rays of sunlight reach the tops of the tallest trees of the Amazon jungle. This first light gives the canopy trees a signal to open their stomata and start an intensive day of photosynthesis and transpiration. As our aim is to measure the daily dynamics in photosynthesis and transpiration of the forest around the ATTO tower, we follow the trees’ schedule and start our measurements also at six. Our workday therefore typically begins in the dark at a quarter to five. Different from the trees however, our signal to start a day of intensive measurements is the smell of fresh coffee coming from the camp kitchen.