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Posted on 01/25/2006 7:01:47 PM PST by Ma3lst0rm
WASHINGTON, DC-- June 26, 1997--The Amazon Basin, home to largest rainforest in the world, is known for its astounding variety of plants and animals. But the rainforest may be also be home to an even more overwhelming variety of previously unknown bacteria and this diversity, just as with plants and animals, may be jeopardized by deforestation, says a report in the July issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060125084759.htm
In Bacterial Diversity, Amazon Is A 'Desert'; Desert Is An 'Amazon'
" Ironically, in the diversity of soil bacteria, the otherwise species-rich Amazon is a more like a desert, while the arid desert is a teeming microbial Amazon, researchers have found. Their first-ever continental-scale genetic survey of soil bacteria revealed that the primary factor that seems to govern the diversity of soil bacteria is soil pH. Thus, the acidic soils of topical forests harbor fewer bacterial species than the neutral soils of deserts."
They say the Amazon forest is relatively recent. If it were converted (or reconverted) to agriculture would it be a net loss?
I'm so conservative, I make Jesse Helms look like a commie, but the destruction of the Amazon jungle is very troubling.
We need to hurry up and find a way to start colonizing other planets outside the known solar system, because the human population has reached critical mass here on earth.
Not only is human population out of control, but even the rapid advance of technology has not kept pace with what is necessary for humans to sustain themselves.
We ina' heapa' trouble, boy !
That is something that you should mention to evolutionists. A big question is how did such diversity come about in such a relative short period of time? It is hardly a picture of a passive process that is often passed off. What it is a picture of is an active genetic algorithm producing periods of abrupt differentiation in species.
You do bring up an interesting point that if we want to increase the net diversity of the Amazon we could just chop it all down which should allow the soil's ph to become more appealing to bacteria which would soon become more diverse than the typical eukaryotic multi-cellular life. Maybe the bacteria safaria Business would boom!
The Amazon needs to be protected but I think we need to be reasonable. We really fool ourselves into believing the most silly things about the world; the number one misconception being that the world the way it is, is the way was and the way it should always and forever be. People have been worried about overpopulation for so long and I wish I could be worried but I'm not. It is like worrying about whether it will rain too much. If it does it floods, if a population expands beyond its means people die.
Humanity responds with more innovation and so far the innovation has outpaced the doomsayers and it is abundantly clear from history that had humanity heeded the doomsayers, the dire prophecies would’ve likely have come true because the innovation, the eyes on the horizon, would’ve been sacrificed to the hording of scraps and perpetual poverty of communism. Just as you can not avoid a ditch by focusing solely on it one can not avoid disaster by dwelling on it.
Conservative or not we will not conserve the rain forest by telling poor indians they are better off without houses and running water.
Perpetual Dismay
We need not hope for the end of the world
And nor can we know the day
But to so fixate ourselves on doom
Can only lead our hearts to one place-
The empty comfort of perpetual dismay.
Since the Amazon is the #1 (or #2 if you count plankton) producer of Greenhouse Gasses on Earth, this has to be counted as good news, right?
Hey that is a good point!!! I really like people that can grasp more than one variable at once!
Both of you are dead wrong. Look up Photosynthesis
" The carbon cycle is based on carbon dioxide (CO2), which can be found in air in the gaseous form, and in water in dissolved form. Terrestrial plants use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to generate oxygen that will sustain animal life. Aquatic plants also generate oxygen, but they use carbon dioxide from water.
The process of oxygen generation is called photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, plants and other producers transfer carbon dioxide and water into complex carbohydrates, such as glucose, under the influence of sunlight. Only plants and some bacteria have the ability to conduct this process, because they possess chlorophyll; a pigment molecule in leaves that they can capture solar energy with."
Echos of a liberal trying to justify abortion, homosexuality, pedophilia, etc etc etc etc etc etc
And when the plants decompose in a swamp, they release the CO2 they collected in life. So if you look at CO2 sources, the Amazon is one of the top sources of CO2.
(That the Amazon also happens to be a CO2 sink when the plants are alive, I'll concede. It's just funny to watch libs freak because they can't wrap their heads around both sides of that biochemistry.)
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Something I have been trying to get across for years. You can't manage for a static planet. That said, the most important thing is not to oppose change but rather work with change and allow organism to be able to 'naturally' respond to them.
They've chopped away at it for decades now.
Someone should propose giving Mother Nature
a shot at letting the forest recoup. It
wouldn't take all that long for jungle
regrowth to occur. You'd think someone
with enough intelligence down there would
at least initiate a Replace a Tree Program.
Guess it's easier to slash away and when the
resources have been totally exhausted, appeal
to World Charity for sustenance assistance.
Where did you get this tripe? The entire population of the earth can be fit into the usable land space of Texas with 1,123 sq feet per man woman and child. The rest of the earth would be empty.
"Guess it's easier to slash away and when the resources have been totally exhausted, appeal to World Charity for sustenance assistance."
That sure seems to be the way these things always go. ;)
your off a little bit, I get 1,152 sqft per person, that enough extra room for a futon!
Woops you're
Complete hogwash. You make Cindy Sheehan look well informed.
See: http://www.ncforestry.org/docs/Latest%20News/articles/shaky_science_behind_saving_rain.htm
"The scientific evidence paints a much brighter picture of deforestation in the Amazon. Looking at the NASA Landsat satellite images of the deforestation rates in the Amazon rainforest, about 12.5 percent has been cleared. Of the 12.5 percent, one half to one third of that is fallow, or in the process of regeneration, meaning that at any given moment up to 94 percent of the Amazon is left to nature. Even the Environmental Defense Fund and Sting’s Rainforest Foundation concede, among the fine print, that the forest is nearly 90 percent intact."
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