According to a new study from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, the resilience of the Amazon rainforest is weakening, and once the tipping point is exceeded, the Amazon rainforest may be replaced by the savannah.
Of course, experts also say that an immediate halt to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest may save everything.
We know that the Amazon rainforest is known as the "lungs of the earth" and is one of the most important forest systems on the planet, playing an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide, delaying global warming, and protecting animal diversity.
But over the years, the Amazon rainforest has been subjected to deforestation and increasing fires, which are destroying the ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest and possibly even degrading it into a savannah.
reforestation
In stark contrast to the Amazon rainforest, the mainland's afforestation activities in the northwest region are currently in the Kubuqi Desert and the Maowusu Desert on the mainland, which has changed from the yellow sand sky in the past to a green and vibrant scene.
In 2019, Nature for Sustainable Development published a paper titled "China and India Lead the World in Greening through Land Use Management". In this article, satellite data from 2000 to 2017 show that the expansion of The Earth's vegetation area is mainly attributable to China and India.
However, the increase in the green area of India is not a good thing for human beings, this is because the green area of India has increased, mainly the expansion of agricultural land.
The expansion of agricultural land is not a good thing for ecology, first of all, it encroaches on the living space of wild animals and plants, and secondly, it will be abandoned with the barrenness of the land, and even in ecologically fragile places, over-reclamation will lead to soil desertification.
The mainland is different, and the reason why the mainland has turned green is mainly to plant trees and afforestation and return farmland to forests and grasslands, and the ecological environment is developing in a favorable direction.
For example, the Mu Wusu Desert used to be yellow sand, and there were very few animals and plants, but now the vegetation has increased, and it has attracted the return of animals, including the carnivorous fox. The thing to know is that foxes have to eat meat, and being able to live here means that there are enough herbivores here.
However, not all countries in the world, like us, are actively promoting the strategy of afforestation and returning farmland to forests, and there are a group of people who are wantonly destroying forests, and the Amazon rainforest is being destroyed by this group of people.
The Amazon rainforest was destroyed
The peak of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is located from May to October, during which the rainforest is in the dry season and loggers are more likely to access the rainforest area.
Although the peak of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has not yet reached this year, new data show that in January 2022, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached the highest level in January since satellite monitoring began.
The reason why the Amazon rainforest can maintain the characteristics of tropical rainforests is because the trees here can conserve water sources, and when precipitation falls on the earth's surface, it will be quickly absorbed and utilized by trees, and then the trees will release water molecules through transpiration, which will condense with condensation nuclei in the air to form rainfall.
Because of this, the Amazon rainforest area has very high rainfall and very high air humidity.
However, when the Amazon rainforest is heavily cut down, the ability to conserve water will weaken. When precipitation falls to the Earth's surface, the water is not absorbed and utilized by vegetation, but instead converges into rivers and flows downstream to the ocean.
This will lead to a lack of local water resources, less rainfall, and more frequent droughts, which in turn will lead to shrinking of the Amazon rainforest.
When the Amazon rainforest reaches a "tipping point", the Amazon rainforest is likely to collapse as a result, and the local ecological environment will be difficult to maintain the growth of the rainforest, and the local area will degenerate into grassland.
When the Amazon rainforest collapses, the flora and fauna that inhabit the area will also face extinction. For example, monkeys like to live in trees, and the area of the rainforest has plummeted, resulting in their habitat being divided into fragments, and the monkeys in the fragments are prone to inbreeding, population degradation, and even extinction.
The green forest hopper prefers to inhabit lakes and wetlands, ambushing and hunting at the water's edge. When rainforests disappear, they will also lose their homes and even become extinct.
Not to mention, there are many animals and plants in the rainforest that humans have never known, and these animals and plants are likely to be extinct before they have been discovered by humans, which is very detrimental to maintaining biological species diversity.
How to save the Amazon rainforest?
Studies suggest that more than three-quarters of unspoiled rainforests have "lost their resilience," meaning that their resilience has slowed down. But tropical ecologist Paul Brando believes that the "tipping point" is not inevitable, even if the resilience of rainforest ecosystems is reduced, it does not mean complete loss, as long as there is zero deforestation and zero arson, the rainforest ecology will gradually be restored.
Secondly, a variety of trees does not mean that the ecological environment is restored, if the planted tree species is too single, it will also form a "green desert", such as: rubber forest, because of the lack of low shrubs and herbs for herbivores to feed, resulting in very few herbivores in the rubber forest, which will also lead to a sharp decrease in the number of carnivores.
In addition, trees, shrubs, and low vegetation combine to form a three-dimensional ecosystem, where each organism can find its own niche. A single tree will lead to a reduction in biodiversity and will not be conducive to the healthy development of local ecosystems.
So, to save the Amazon rainforest, you don't just look at the area of the forest, but also see if the local ecosystem is restored.
Have the roots of extreme weather been found?
Over the years, we can clearly feel that "extreme weather is becoming more and more common, even more extreme". This is not our delusion, since 2020, there have been frequent extreme weather across the earth, such as: North American thermal domes, exceptionally high temperatures in Kuwait, heavy rains in Europe, super tornadoes and hurricanes in the United States, extreme precipitation in Zhengzhou, exceptionally large fires in Australia, and now major floods in Australia, which have caused 18 deaths.
The main reason for the frequent occurrence of extreme weather is global warming. The Amazon rainforest ecosystem was supposed to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, sequestering carbon and delaying global warming.
But over the years, there have been frequent fires in the Amazon rainforest, not only the ability to sequester carbon, but also a large amount of carbon dioxide has been released into the air, which is very unfavorable to curbing the development of global warming.
However, it is also biased to blame the Amazon rainforest for all the faults of extreme weather. Because the Amazon rainforest is just one of the systems of the Earth's ecology.
There are three important systems on Earth: the forest system, the ocean system, and the ice sheet system. In these three systems, it is divided into: Amazon rainforest, North American forest, Atlantic circulation, coral reef, Arctic Circle, Greenland ice sheet, Antarctic ice sheet, permafrost layer and so on.
When one of the systems goes wrong, it affects the rest of the ecosystem, which can lead to frequent extreme weather.
Fortunately, we still have a chance to save, and it is not too late to act.