Phosphorus

The increased supply of phosphorus benefits cyanobacteria that live on the surface of the brown algae.

The tower is bristling with high-tech instruments - sensors that track almost everything happening between the forest and the atmosphere: water vapor, carbon dioxide, sunlight, and essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.

High in phosphorus, it can become a problem when excess nutrients from animal manure leaches into rivers and groundwater.

"It may be that in normal conditions phosphorus is bound up in another molecule such as phosphorus trioxide," explained Beiler.

Brazil imports some 90% of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium nutrients it needs, primarily from Russia, whose war in Ukraine plus Western sanctions have made supplies precarious.