The Amazon rainforest plays an essential role in global ecological processes. It is the largest terrestrial carbonsequestering ecosystem in the world, controlling global temperature and precipitation, and balancing the flux of atmospheric gases. It is also the largest repository of plant and animal species on Earth. Despite its importance, it is one of the least understood ecosystems regarding its microbiological diversity. In 2009, the Amazon Rainforest Microbial Observatory (ARMO) was created to obtain the first in-depth baseline estimates of microbial biodiversity and to measure the impact of rapid deforestation on this diversity.Researchers plan to sequence the metagenomes of a subset of ARMO samples, five from a primary forest and five from an established pasture, to determine the metagenomic consequences of deforestation.
PI: Rodrigues, Jorge