Open AccessEffects of drought on rainforest
Author(s) -
Showstack Randy
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/eo086i020p00194-04
Subject(s) - rainforest , amazon rainforest , environmental science , climate change , tropical rainforest , agroforestry , tropical rain forest , atmosphere (unit) , tropical climate , geography , forestry , ecology , biology , meteorology
An experiment to simulate the effects of climate change and severe drought on a parcel of rainforest in the Brazilian Amazon has found that some parts of the affected forest tolerated the dry condition by absorbing water from deeper in the soil. When the water in the soil had been depleted, many small trees stopped growing, rather than shedding their leaves. This finding has implications for climate change because the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere during tropical droughts will decrease significantly, according to researchers.