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W
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alking on cornflakes.
That’s what it sounds like to hike through a rainforest in the grip of a strong
drought. Each step crackles with dry snapping twigs and leaves. It’s
frustrating for field biologists like us – we can forget about glimpsing
anything but the most oblivious of wildlife.
Rainforests aren’t supposed to be bone-dry like this, and
normally they’re not. But at our Daintree Drought Experiment in far north
Queensland, we and our colleagues have suspended more than 3,000 plastic panels
above the forest floor to create an artificial mega-drought. The experiment
began only three months ago but already the rainforest beneath is wilted and
hurting.
Read The Conversation
story - “‘Godzilla’ El Niño: time to prepare for mega-droughts”.
