The amount of carbon the Amazon\u00a0region’s\u00a0remaining trees removed from the atmosphere in the last decade fell by almost a\u00a0third, according to leading scientists. They continue by\u00a0warning that man-made carbon emissions will need to be even more\u00a0severely\u00a0reduced in order\u00a0to tackle climate change.<\/p>\n
Trees in untouched areas of the forest have been dying off at\u00a0an increasing rate, a published study uncovered, speculating the\u00a0likely cause as more extreme\u00a0weather variation in the region. They also suggested that more CO2 in the atmosphere was counterintuitively leading to trees dying younger.<\/p>\n
Leeds University professor Dr Roel Brienen says the Amazon was responsible for one-fifth to one-quarter of carbon sequestered. Meaning any decline in its efficiency as a carbon sink was of consequence to human efforts to combat climate change.<\/p>\n
If this trend continues, it means that the subsidies society\u00a0has\u00a0been getting from nature (from\u00a0the forests taking up part of human-generated emissions put into the atmosphere) are lessening. And the more that amount reduces, the more\u00a0stronger cuts we have to make in CO2 emissions in order to mitigate those effects.<\/p>\n
Globally, vegetation is locking away more carbon as CO2 levels in the atmosphere rise. Plants are growing faster, as they are fueled by a more fertile atmosphere. But the Amazon is eschewing this trend, meaning that green coverage in our urban areas may need to be considered to help mitigate the threat.<\/p>\n
Dr Brienen said the forests may also be experiencing the consequence of higher CO2 levels, suggesting that the tree’s\u00a0accelerated growth is leading to them\u00a0dying younger. As the dead trees decay, they slowly release much of their stored carbon to the atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The hypothesis\u00a0is consistent with\u00a0predictions made by an Australian scientist in 2009, stating\u00a0that as the air became more rich with carbon, the Amazon would lose much of its ability to absorb it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The amount of carbon the Amazon\u00a0region’s\u00a0remaining trees removed from the atmosphere in the last decade fell by almost a\u00a0third, according to leading scientists. They continue by\u00a0warning that man-made carbon emissions will need to be even more\u00a0severely\u00a0reduced in order\u00a0to tackle climate change. Trees in untouched areas of the forest have been dying off at\u00a0an increasing rate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3409,"featured_media":18731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[364,366,371],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-policy","category-urban-trees-arboriculture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n