My OperaDrought Threatens 130 Million Years Old Rainforests
Friday, July 20, 2012 2:15:36 PM
At 130 million years old, the rainforests of Southeast Asia are the oldest in the world. These rainforests play important roles in modulating regional rainfall as well in the global carbon cycle.
Since the 1960s, increased warming in the Indian Ocean and frequent El Niño events have reduced rainfall in the region by approximately 1% per decade. Further, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change predicts that over the 21st century, Southeast Asia will experience higher land temperatures, more droughts, and increased seasonality - wet seasons during the fall will get wetter, and dry seasons during the spring will get drier.
Study of these rainforests has implications for predictions of ecological changes, regional rainfall patterns, and global climate as well as direct applications for policies aimed at reducing additional human impacts on these ecosystems, which are not only vulnerable to climate change but also have the highest rates of deforestation in the whole world.
Since the 1960s, increased warming in the Indian Ocean and frequent El Niño events have reduced rainfall in the region by approximately 1% per decade. Further, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change predicts that over the 21st century, Southeast Asia will experience higher land temperatures, more droughts, and increased seasonality - wet seasons during the fall will get wetter, and dry seasons during the spring will get drier.
Study of these rainforests has implications for predictions of ecological changes, regional rainfall patterns, and global climate as well as direct applications for policies aimed at reducing additional human impacts on these ecosystems, which are not only vulnerable to climate change but also have the highest rates of deforestation in the whole world.
- http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2012/2011JG001835.shtml
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120716214244.htm
