Friday, May 22, 2015

Savannahs Slow Climate Change, Experts Say

African Savannah. An international study shows that semi-arid ecosystems--savannahs and shrublands--play an extremely important role in controlling carbon sinks and the climate-mitigating ecosystem service they represent. (Credit:  © tellmemore / Fotolia) Click to enlarge.Tropical rainforests have long been considered the Earth's lungs, sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thereby slowing down the increasing greenhouse effect and associated human-made climate change.  Scientists in a global research project now show that the vast extensions of semi-arid landscapes occupying the transition zone between rainforest and desert dominate the ongoing increase in carbon sequestration by ecosystems globally, as well as large fluctuations between wet and dry years.  This is a major rearrangement of planetary functions.

Read more at Savannahs Slow Climate Change, Experts Say

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