Intact Amazon forests show possible signs of global warming impact

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/47453

Climate change may be taking a hidden toll on intact rainforests in the heart of the Amazon, finds a new study based on 35 years of observations.

The research, published in the journal Ecology, focused on the ecological impacts of fragmentation but unexpectedly found changes in the control forests. These shifts, which included faster growth and death rates of trees, increased biomass accumulation, and proliferation in vines, may be linked to rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, according to George Mason University's Thomas Lovejoy, who initiated the study in the late 1970's.

"These changes might be driven by increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," said Lovejoy in a statement. "Plants use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and when it increases, the forest evidently becomes more unstable and dynamic, as long as the soils have enough nutrients."

The findings, which are consistent with other research in the region, lend further evidence to the argument that the world's largest rainforest is under threat from both land use change and global warming.

FULL story at link.