Is the Congo rainforest losing it's photosynthetic capacity. That is the question posed by lead researcher Liming Zhou. He was the one analyzing how green the Congo rainforest is when he discovered that it is in fact less green over all. Now he admits this is only a preliminary step but it could lead to the discovery that the Congo, and other rainforests, are losing their ability to be photosynthetic. One of the theories behind this is that climate change may be effecting the vegetations greenness. The forest has been experiencing long periods of drought and as you can imagine this has caused some hard times for the local plant life. This could cause some major issues in the ecosystem that is the rainforest. Zhou was sure to mention that this is only a preliminary step and that much more research was necessary.
NOS:
- Science is based on evidence: The scientist accept that they need more evidence to make a final analysis.
- Role of motivation and curiosity: The scientist explored an idea more in depth because they were motivated to learn and help the enviroment.
Let's hope our harmful actions stop before all the rainforests are already gone! If climate change really is negatively affecting the ability of these diverse, natural areas to go through photosynthesis, then the answer should probably lie in reducing the effects of global warming. I also found that preserving rainforests can help to prevent global warming, so it seems like a mutual, win-win situation. Deforestation produces greenhouse gases that add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. If we save rainforests, we can also save the climate!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/stop-deforestation/tropical-deforestation-and-1.html