Tropical forests ‘re-shaped’ by climate changes
During droughts, trees that require moist conditions die, while those that are more tolerant of dry conditions - in this case, deciduous, canopy species - survive. Why does this matter?Professor Enquist and his team examined how an area of forest had changed between 1976 and 1996.
“We were fortunate that between the two dates, there was a series of quite impressive droughts - those droughts have been increasing in severity over the longer term,” he told BBC News.
He said that there had been a “tremendous reduction” in the total number of trees in the forest.
“The ecosystem implication is that those types of forests (dominated by deciduous, canopy species) tend to store less carbon and hold less biomass, which would then have a detrimental impact in terms of the entire biosphere’s ability to help regulate or mitigate the effects of global climate change.”
Like “superbug” bacteria getting stronger and stronger, while antibiotics get weaker and weaker.
Professor Enquist added that these forests appeared to be quite susceptible to changes in rainfall, and that future projections of changes in rainfall patterns were likely to have “immediate or very quick consequences”.