According to new scientist findings, the young vegetation of reforestation may not sustain as much diverse wildlife or trap as much carbon dioxide as the older trees did. Among the array of discussions this topic has provoked, the international community is pondering how to prevent the disaster that has come to be-global warming.  Due to the high absorption rate of carbon dioxide that the rain forest trees absorb, these trees have come to be a critical part of the solution process. Currently, only about 1.7 percent of the original forested areas are growing back. Although regrowth is offering bleak possibilities, the fact of the matter is that in the time it takes one to wash one’s hands 50 football fields of tropical rain forest will be devoured.

The existence of this pristine land is in question when one takes a look at the research done by Mr. Wright of the Smithsonian Tropical Institute and Helene Muller-Landau of the University of Minnesota. Both scientists predict that “large areas of tropical forest cover will remain in 2030 and beyond, and thus that habitat loss will threaten extinction for a smaller portion of tropical forest species than previously predicted. Loosing about half of the of theses species in the coming decades, as predicted puts much emphasis on these “new” trees but it is unlikely that these trees will support what the old-growth forests did. Furthermore, they will not be able to trap the same amount of biodiversity and critical ecosystem and are much more vulnerable to fire. The demolition culprits are mainly logging, mining and large-scale industrial agriculture but everyone can do their part; plant a tree.

Tags: carbon dioxide, deforestation, greenhouse gasses, rainforests, reforestation, tropical rainforests, vegetation

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Forests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.