Research at ATTO

Last weekend, we received a visit from teachers of the nearby schools, along with a team from the Secretary of Education of the municipality of Presidente Figueiredo at ATTO.

It was a very fruitful day where everyone had the chance to get to know the project facilities and ask questions about our research. They also had the chance to climb the tall tower to the first platform to enjoy the view above the canopy.

On this occasion, a cooperation agreement was signed with the Secretary of Education to continue the work started in the neighboring schools and possibly expand to other schools in the rural area.

Everyone was very impressed with the structure of the research and is looking forward to the next activities. It is worth mentioning that our staff has spared no effort to ensure a safe and successful visit for all visitors.

~ Cybelli ~

Recently, the groups from KIT & MAUA participated in the community education project.
The team held four lectures between the 22nd and 23rd of June, two in the Macacaboia Community, one in the Bela Vista Community, and one in the Maracarana Community. During the lectures, we addressed the ATTO project in general and answered a lot of their questions. We then shared information with them about the relationship between forests, the atmosphere, the water cycle, and the carbon cycle. Finally, we presented of our new ATTO project, Hydrotraits. Our two doctoral students Hilana Hadlich and Caroline Mallmann participated in the lecture at the Maracarana school. In addition to the oral presentation, the students from Maracarana and Bela Vista carried out practical activities in the forest area, such as measuring the diameter and height of trees, collecting GPS points, and measuring the area.
Cybelli accompanied us in all the activities. She took the opportunity to deliver the river monitoring rulers to all schools and carried out practical activities with the students, teaching them how to read the rulers.
~ Flávia ~

These days, we have continued our interaction with the communities. We have been at the Macacaboia community regarding the Uatumã water level measurements. The objective was to enable the installation of further level meters with the decreasing water level. The daily monitoring of the water level has taken place very responsibly after the installation of the first level meter a few weeks ago.

First, we gave a short interactive presentation at the school for all students about the importance and the background of these new measurements as well as the important role of everyone participating in this project. Then the whole group went to the measurement site at the river to discuss the upcoming installations in the drier season, which just started. The second level meter was successfully mounted a couple of days afterward when the water decreased by more than 50 cm. The topic of scales and measurements will be included in the mathematics class in the upcoming days. All participants are very motivated.

In Bela Vista, further installations are foreseen shortly. In Maracarana a further level meter installation has also already taken place when the river level had fallen a bit.

~ Stefan ~

Recently, we had the first meetings with the communities. Even with unforeseen circumstances and bad weather, we had a very fruitful exchange with the community members.

On the occasion, the MAUA-INPA group presented their research in progress, a proposal for natural trails, in addition to talking with the community about the impacts of the Balbina’s Hydroelectric Power Plant dam on the daily life of the community.

We also presented the project for monitoring the water level of the river, and made the material available to them.

During these meetings, we also noted the different priorities and needs of each community. Therefore, we plan to put together an action plan aligned with the interests of each school.

 The most discussed topics were:

• Extreme flood levels affecting homes and plantations,
• Quality of water for general use,
• Scarcity of drinking water in schools,
• Interest in trails for educational, recreational and income generation purposes.

In addition to working on some actions focused on the demands of the communities, we also want to inform about the projects developed at ATTO, so all research groups that are interested are invited to a brief lecture at schools during the period of stay at ATTO.

~ Cybelli ~

Since last year we have been discussing the approach and how to proceed in a safe way to execute our projects in the communities. In a meeting with the Secretary of Education of Presidente Figueiredo, the teachers, and school coordinators, they selected the following topics of interest:

• Water quality
• River water level monitoring
• Solid residue disposal
• Meteorological monitoring
• Ecological trail

The water level monitoring of the Uatumã river, as part of the school project, was planned to start in 2020. But with the pandemic and lockdowns, everything was postponed.

As a start, we requested technical support from the local Superintendence of the National Hydro-meteorological Network (coordinated by ANA – National Water Agency) to install the limnimetric scales at the ATTO port. They approved it and installed the rulers this week following the national regulation.

The next step is to install the scales close to the schools, and we’re just waiting for an answer regarding the scholar calendar to confirm some talks, related to the topics above, at each school.

~ Cybelli ~

We want to share with you some news about an exciting project that developed over the last few weeks. Back in November, we had some very special visitors to our site. We had invited teachers from four nearby communities along the Uatumã River to ATTO. Representatives of the Secretary of Education of Presidente Figueiredo, the municipality to which these communities belong, joined them on this visit. This was a fantastic opportunity to get to know our neighbors in the forest better, to tell them about our research, and show them the observatory. Afterward, we discussed over lunch how we can best collaborate in the future.

One of the outcomes was to arrange for our team to engage the youth in those communities. So, over the last two weeks, some of our scientists visited these local schools and presented our research. Prior, most students and residents hadn’t known much about our work and were amazed by everything they saw and heard. Some teachers have already asked about the possibility of further developing this partnership. One such option is to create school projects with an environmental focus associated with our research at ATTO. Additionally, we had a visit from the coordinator of the Sustainable Development Reserve Uatumã. He was impressed with the project and would like to expand the interaction with the other schools in the reserve.

We are very excited about this development. And we hope these visits will not only serve as a way to inform the whole community about our work but also spark curiosity for science among the children.