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."
Well, that would make for one messy defication. eeeeewwwwwww
Just wait till 'Jap Grass' (Coogan grass) gets there.
(You'll be able to hide in Jap grass also, lol)
Telling them that flushing condems strangles sea turtles will drive them to apoplexy.
More amusing and much less messy.
NOT that far fetched! Check out this site: Voluntary Human Extinction Movement
I quote:
Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense."May we live long and die out"
About a mile and a half from where I live, kudzu has completely swallered up a house where an old man lived until about a year ago.
On another subject, wouldn't these be "rainforest" vines, rather than "jungle" vines. After all, when jungles acquire a PC name like "rainforest", I think the Earthfirst vines should also be PC.
esearchers discover trees in Amazon much older than assumed
(Not as helpful with global warming)
Today@UCI | December 8, 2005 | Staff
Posted on 12/13/2005 1:56:43 PM EST by DaveLoneRanger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1539676/posts
Rain Forest Myth Goes Up in Smoke Over the Amazon
LA Times | Henry Chu
Posted on 06/08/2005 7:11:04 PM EDT by Coleus
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419117/posts
Surprise: Rainforest Grows When It's Dry
LiveScience.com | 3/21/06
Posted on 03/21/2006 11:58:00 AM EST by anymouse
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1600375/posts
the biomasss of the trees will absorb as much as a comprable mass of tree and maybe more.
Thanks for the archive bump.
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