Skip to main content

The Natural Regulators of Climate: Tropical Forests

 By: Aleah Gonzalez

Figure 1. Regional-Scale of Minimal Forest Extent and Maximal Forest Extent in Forest-Rainfall Feedback. (Staal, 2020).


The role in which tropical forests play within the environment and the globe as a whole is an important factor in the regulation of global climate. The modification of the environment in which tropical forest influence are dependent on the varying spatial scales in which influence the history of tropical forests. The role in which tropical forests play are important for the mediation of their own regional climate where the forests can enhance atmospheric moisture recycling in which in return enhances rainfall levels within seasonal and annual time scales. An interesting factor within the research is the role of tropical forests and their functions that are dependent on feedback mechanisms which are not only affected by but also affect the distributions of tropical forests. Within the study conducted the use of remote sensing, a global hydrological model, and detailed atmospheric moisture tracking simulations were used in the study of hysteresis in tropical forests within the 21st century. The results showed that tropical forests shape their own distributions as well as create climates in which allow for the shaping of their distributions to occur. With the growing deforestation of many areas including those that were studied, the ability for regional climate regulation within tropical forest is negatively impacted. The positive impact of the mediation of tropical forests' own regional climate allows for the implication that a multitude of tropical forest distributions are possible. The cost and benefits in which tropical forests climate regulation poses is the deterioration of resilience within the forests and a predicted increase in the range of possible rainfall values within the 21st century respectively.  


Staal, A., I. Fetzer, L. Wang-Erlandsson. et al. 2020. Hysteresis of tropical forests in the 21st century. Nat. Commum. 11, 4978. 


Comments

  1. Jose T. RodriguezNovember 19, 2020 at 10:51 AM

    This is interesting, I think a great question that scientists should ask when they look into this is: Is there any way the growth of a forest could be accelerated to ensure our forests are not lost forever?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vcampos54November 26, 2020 at 5:31 PM

    Do you think there is any way to potentially stop deforestation ? Or do you believe in the near future there could be a possible development of a manmade tropical rainforest ecosystem that could provide the same benefits the rainforests usually do ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. M MendezNovember 30, 2020 at 4:02 PM

      It is very complicated, but there is a small tropical biome constructed in Biosphere II. Once someone figures out how to do this as a closed system, it will be a leap forward to space colonization.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How are health-care and trees related?

By: Ritzuko Gutierrez  Unfortunately, there are flaws in our system. One of these flaws is the lack of access to high-quality, affordable health care in rural areas. People who suffer from this issue, may be incentivized to rely on illegal activities. For example, illegal logging in order to get cash to pay health care needs. Tropical forests are mainly affected. The loss is greater than gain and it leads to a change in landscapes, livelihoods, biodiversity, and climate change. Providing high-quality health care to rural communities with limited resources and income options living nearly a tropical rainforest benefits both conservation and human health. Globally, 35% of protected areas are managed by local communities and when designing a conservation program, they are rarely considered in it. Although, this idea has benefits for humans and the environment, it also has its negative consequences. When applying, incentive-based conservation approaches, it can either go well or bad. B...
1 comment
Read more

Oil Spills: 3D graphene

 By: Mary Aguilar          Oil spills has become a very big problem and causing a big problem for marine life.  This study discuss the importance of how oil spills have been a problem, and a solution on how to prevent oil spills from occurring. The article talks about how 3D graphene materials can remove dyes from the water. The 3D graphene can absorb both oils and organic solvents with also many other dyes have been studied in this research. The study concludes that there is possible use for 3D graphene but like many studies there is always disadvantages because it can clean oil spills under water but it is unable to absorb nanomaterials. Therefore the 3D graphene needs improvement in order to be able to solve the problem of oil spills, because if this is able to work then marine life can be saved.  Figure 1: Different ways graphene can be synthesized.  Riaz, M.A., McKay, G., & Saleem, J. (2017). 3D graphene-based nanostructure...
1 comment
Read more

Is Hydroelectric Power actually a "Green" Energy Source?

Is Hydroelectric Power actually a "Green" Energy Source? Source: Tennessee Valley Authority (public domain) Greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, and the three major greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Natural sources of these gases consists of lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds as well. Lakes are environmentally beneficial because they are active, changing, and are important regulators of the three major greenhouse gases. That being said, lakes and reservoirs are known to be built for the purpose of generating power. So much so that water has been retained by dams that the global sea level rise has lowered approximately 0.02 inches per year in the span of 50 years. And since fossil fuels are not utilized to to produce hydroelectric power, lakes are known for their "green" energy sources alternative. Which is a common misconception because it is those lake and reservoirs that release powerful greenhouse gases into t...
Post a Comment
Read more