Global warming, why do rainforests grow better?
Dr Simon Wilcock, the co-author of Bangor University, published a paper in Nature-Communication in March, 2020, saying that due to global warming, the ecology of the Amazon rainforest is deteriorating, and the ecological critical point is rapidly approaching, and it may become a savanna in the next 50 years! When the author saw this paper, he felt a cold heart. Is this Amazon rainforest really going to become the Amazon prairie?
However, a paper recently published in Science Progress puts forward a different view from that of Dr. Simon Wilcock. The author is Dr Pierre Genting of Columbia University. He believes that global warming will help the Amazon rainforest to be more prosperous!
Dr genting said that the study of the whole Amazon basin showed that in some very humid areas of the Amazon rainforest, when the air became drier, photosynthesis actually increased under limited water pressure. At this time, trees will grow photosynthetic leaves more effectively to compensate for water pressure!
Dr genting said that he and his colleagues are using AI to analyze various climate models in the Amazon basin to study how changes in air dryness and soil moisture in South America affect photosynthesis! Compared with the data obtained by satellite, the model is verified to be reliable.
Satellite remote sensing results in dry season in Amazon region
Julia Green, another author of the paper, said that previous studies overestimated the carbon loss caused by climate change in the Amazon rainforest. In most parts of Amazon, with the increase of temperature, forests can survive better, even in a long temperature range in the future.
Satellite remote sensing results of Amazon region in rainy season
Of course, this global warming cannot be intensified indefinitely. After reaching a certain threshold, the photosynthesis of the rainforest will experience a peak and then decline. Although the rainforest will not be able to resist global warming in the distant future, one thing is certain: the self-regulation ability of the Amazon rainforest is far beyond human imagination, and it will definitely last longer than human beings!
Global warming, the only loser may only be human beings!
Maybe this is bad news, but this bad news tells us more than once in geological history that the earth once experienced a very warm period, when even the South Pole had temperate rain forests!
Antarctic rainforest in the middle Cretaceous
At that time, the surface temperature of the tropical ocean was 35 degrees Celsius, and the sea level was much higher than now. One of the authors, Professor ulrich Salzman of Northumbria University, said that at that time, a large area in the south was originally a "temperate swamp rainforest area".
The location of the temperate rain forest was found and marked with a red cross.
This is about 90 degrees south latitude. Now it seems to be a proper polar night, but at that time, the average annual temperature here was around 12 degrees Celsius, and the average summer temperature could reach 19 degrees Celsius! And according to sediment research, the rainfall in this area was similar to that in Wales now.
You can simply understand that the Cretaceous period was the most prosperous time of life on earth before the fifth extinction. At that time, dinosaurs reached their peak, while birds had evolved feathers and spread their wings to fly, and mammals were still dormant in the depths of the jungle, because powerful dinosaurs ruled everything!
But everything changed in the asteroid impact 65 million years ago. All the animals that dominated the earth disappeared in an instant, leaving only small animals unrelated to the environment and small mammals at that time. I have to say that this is really an act of god. After being executed, a blessing in disguise is a blessing in disguise.
Variation curve of earth temperature in 67 million years
Of course, the Cretaceous was warm, which is not the result of scientists' painstaking efforts, because the German icebreaking research ship Polarstern took the red cross in the above picture 90 million years ago, which contained "countless traces of pollen, spores and flowering plant residues". Obviously, in the frozen South Pole, this will not happen.
The researchers used the German icebreaker Polarstern.
With the global warming, how will mankind quit the historical stage?
Evidence in geological history tells us that the earth was once warm and all kinds of animals and plants lived well. Of course it's not very good, but it should be described as prosperity. So, with global warming, how will mankind quit history? Global warming has many consequences, which are listed as follows:
1. Sea level rise: As a result, the rich coastal areas will be flooded, the delta of the most fertile land will disappear, and human beings may starve.
2. Ocean acidification, coral ecological disappearance and marine life shuffling.
3. Permafrost melts and carbon dioxide and methane are released rapidly.
4. Global warming, the increase of extreme climate and the increase of typhoon duration.
5, local ecological changes, traditional fishing grounds and rivers may change, and the threat of war increases.
6. The ecological critical point is approaching, from quantitative change to qualitative change.
Actually, there are many consequences. These seemingly negative effects can be very serious. Every consequence may close the gate of the "big filter" tighter, but when it will appear, we don't know at all, sometimes it may come from outer space, and sometimes it may come from human beings themselves.
The sixth time is happening?
But one thing is certain: as global warming continues, new plants and animals will adapt to the new global environment, but we humans will be eliminated in this reshuffle because we can't change quickly, in order to repay the debts of the planet we changed before!
Come out and hang out, you have to pay it back sooner or later!