Breaking the Cycle of Forest Loss in the Amazon

The Amazon is at risk of what has been described as a ‘die-back circle’, where forest loss increases as a result of reduced rainfall and human activities such as logging. Crucially, that reduction itself leads to yet more drought conditions. Human induced climate change also threatens to further reduce rainfall, exacerbating the situation. Being able to predict which regions of the Amazon are susceptible to this loss is therefore critical to avoid worsening conditions.

The Amazon is at risk of being
caught in a "die-back circle".

Towards this end, researchers have recently reported that the presence of a variety of tree species are a good indicator of the likelihood of survival for forest regions. Reporting in the journal ‘Nature Communications’, the lead-author Dr. Delphine Clara Zemp of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, reminds us why this research matters by simply stating that, ‘The Amazon rainforest is one of the tipping elements in the Earth system.’

A self-sustaining but vulnerable system.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “Breaking the Cycle of Forest Loss in the Amazon.”

Australia is dry and global warming makes water supply precarious

A

ustralia is the driest populated continent on earth.

Global warming if bringing seriously disrupted weather that will bring a confusion of drenching downpours and punishing droughts, seeing Australians living a life of “feast and famine” with periods of far too much water to others of far too little.

And along with a dysfunctional climate changing predictable weather patterns, we are gouging our aquifers and so quickly using up our nation’s ancient water, water that has built up over millennia and because of reduced rainfall is not being adequately recharged.

Conscious of that it was interest to note the EcoWatch story that reported: “Earlier this year, an obscure United Nations document, the World Water Development Report, unexpectedly made headlines around the world.

“The report made the startling claim that the world would face a 40 per cent shortfall in freshwater in as soon as 15 years. Crops would fail. Businesses dependent on water would fail. Illness would spread. A financial crash was likely, as was deepening poverty for those just getting by.”

Read the EcoWatch story - “8 Major Cities Running Out of Water”.