The ECOTOWER is a contribution to ecological research in the Amazon basin. An eddy covriance system is used to determine vertical turbulent fluxes within the local atmospheric boundary layer above caopy. This method is used to support the analysis of $CO_2$ balance in the soil - vegetation - atmosphere system.

ECOTOWER stands for the Eddy Covariance Tower in the Tambopata province in the Peruvian region Madre de Dios. This research tower in the Peruvian Amazon Rain Forest at the banks of the Tambopata river is operated by Dr. Eric Cosio from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP).

It was built in 2011 under the initiative of Prof. John Grace (Edinburgh) with funds from the Scottish Alliance for Geosciences and the Environment (SAGES) and the EU-GEOCARBON project.

It is maintained by PUCP and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) subcontract.

The ECOTOWER is part of the AmeriFlux network. Its site ID is PE-TNR.

The 45 m self-supported tower has two upper platforms. The highest one contains the solar panels, eddy covariance equipment and intakes for the particle meter, ozone sensor and calibrated $CO_2$ measurement and meteorological equipment. The second level has the profiler and the short and long wave radiometers.

A detailed description of the instrumentation can be found here.

The tower is located in the Madre de Dios region in southeastern Peru near the border with the Pando department in Bolivia and the state of Acre, Brazil. It is situated within the Tambopata National Reserve, 1 km from the Tambopata river, which marks the reserve limit. The other shore of the river is in the buffer zone and has limited human activity. There is a lodge named Explorer's Inn at 1.5 Km to the site.

Fig.: ECOTOWER and the trail to Explorer's Inn at Tambopata river. Click on symbols for more information.