Tropical Rainforest Climate Change

Rainforests help to regulate Earths climate.

Tropical rainforest climate change. Forest options for climate mitigation include avoided forest loss improved natural forest management afforestation defined by the UNFCCC as the direct human-induced. The good news is that science economics and politics are. By protecting rainforest habitat for endangered species Rainforest Trust prevents carbon emissions and safeguards the planets resilience to climate change.

Studies have shown that halting tropical deforestation and allowing for regrowth could mitigate up to 50 of net global carbon emissions through 2050. Yet with every passing year climate change cuts into tropical forests capacity to operate as a safe natural carbon capture and storage system. Nature Geosci 6 268273 2013.

Current and Future Impacts to Tropical Rainforests. Science economics and politics are now aligned to support a major international effort to protect tropical forests. Tropical rainforests store a lot of carbon as living biomass.

As they photosynthesise and grow tropical forests remove enormous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere reducing global warming. Tropical rainforests do it better. Global responses to climate change and local tropical land-use At a global scale societal and economic responses to cli-mate change can magnify human pressures on tropical forestsSpurredby risingpetroleum prices andtheneedto mitigate greenhouse gas emissions crop-based biofuel production has increased rapidly in recent years 5455.

Tropical rainforests are among the most threatened ecosystems globally due to large-scale fragmentation as a result of human activity. Despite their importance tropical forests and their ecosystems are being destroyed at a high and increasing rate in most forest-rich countries. But theres a tragic irony to clearing rainforests for agriculture.

Observed changes to tropical rainforests include fluctuations in rainfall patterns causing slow drying out of the rainforest. Gosling Editors Tropical Rainforest Responses to Climatic Change Second Edition Published in association with Praxis Publishing Chichester UK Professor Mark B. Forests and the climate are inextricably linked.