Posted on 08/14/2002 3:47:33 PM PDT by anymouse
Jungle vines are spreading faster in South America's Amazon rainforest than before, choking trees and potentially slowing the forests' ability to soak up damaging greenhouse gases, scientists say.
The spread of woody vines -- like the ones Tarzan swings from in the movies-- is the first change in plant composition that scientists have recorded in the deepest virgin jungle, and suggests mankind is having more impact on delicate ecosystems than previously shown.
A team of researchers from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and the United States, led by Oliver Phillips of Leeds University in Britain, counted and measured the vines, called lianas, in the primary rainforests of the Amazon.
They found that the "dominance" of lianas over trees had increased by between 1.7 and 4.6 per year over the last two decades of the twentieth century.
"It's the first time that a changing composition has been observed in mature forests," Phillips told Reuters in a telephone interview. His team's findings are to be published in the British science journal Nature on Thursday.
He said the growth in vines appeared to have been caused by greater concentrations of carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse" gas that most scientists believe is causing global temperatures to rise as a result of human activity.
Plants absorb carbon dioxide in photosynthesis and scientists have predicted that as humans produce more of the gas, forests would grow to soak some of it up, a phenomenon called the "carbon sink," which could help ease global warming).
But Phillips said the additional carbon appears to benefit resource-hungry vines more than slower-growing trees, throwing off the balance in jungle forests.
"What we think we were finding is the ecosystem responding, not just in growth but in a change in its composition. If you change an environmental driver like carbon dioxide concentration, some plants will do better than others," he said.
As the vines weigh down trees and kill them, they can reduce the ability of the forest to soak up more carbon, making the problem of global warming even worse.
Other plant and animal species are also likely to have been affected by the increase in vines relative to trees. Different insects may pollinate vines rather than trees, different birds may eat the insects, and so on.
"The ecosystem's connected. You change one part and other parts are likely to change too," Phillips said. "It's a kind of example of how we can't predict how the world is going to respond to the changes we're causing."
Information seem a bit vague here. Wonder what caused them to draw this conclusion other than wishfull thinking? No suggstions of controlled CO2 absorption tests to sustain the CO2 stimulus idea.
Not true - only those whose grant money depends on "further study" and those who are committed lefties on other issues as well.
There are three problems with this. First of all, grass transfers carbon dioxide into oxygen better than trees. Choking of the trees would increase grass growth. Second, any plant that benefits more from carbon dioxide is more likely to be able to transfer it to oxygen-- perhaps not in every case, but there is a much higher probability. Third, Tarzan could use more vines, or he'll be stuck in Africa, and Africans don't want whites in their continent any more [at least not Mugabe].
The vine that ate the South
You kidding? Really? I'm willing to believe you might be right. They are downright nutty. But I'd need a good source on that.
Now THERE'S a good one for the tin foil hat brigade. What's your source?
Gee, Reuters. Golly. Thanks ever so much for the explanation of what these things called "vines" are.
Hey Reuters..........this is what's called "condescending bulls**t"; you know........like the kind we saw issuing from your buddy, Clinton, for years. Like that.
"na" and "palm"
Environmentalists are Satanists masquerading as normal people. They want to kill people in large numbers per Agenda 21; see link below*! The "media" is their lying member to deceive the deceived-sheeple into running to embrace their own death.
See Avoiding-Sulla's post here ~~ 27 ~~~ *THE AXIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EVIL
The gov't through NASA suggests today that smoke in China is the result of fires..."caused by man..."
What remedy might they suggest? Kill the fires or have less people to start fires? LIGHTNING caused most of the fires in Oregon. G~d makes LIGHTNING! Will they try to kill Him too?
There's a Holocaust coming!
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