mood change could have devastating aftermath for much of the world ’s ecosystems , but at least one area might benefit . Ancient pelting forests thrived during severe warming millions of age ago , helping to create today ’s metal money diverseness .
56.3 million class ago , planet Earth was going through one of its hottest full stop . middling temperature were 3 - 5 degrees higher than they are today , and carbon paper dioxide levels in the atmosphere a whopping 2.5 time thicker than what we ’ve got today . Both of those are fairly extreme , and it seems sensible that life struggled during these times . But , at least in the rainfall woodland , that was n’t the case at all .
This particular period of time of global thawing was have a go at it as the Paleocene - Eocene Thermal Maximum . Around 56.3 million years ago , Earth ’s temperature set out increasing , and it took only 10,000 years for C dioxide to reach such high levels . This remain the norm for the next 200,000 years . Despite these apparently harsh condition , many coinage thrived , as the diversity of rainwater timberland mintage treble during this stop .
Although some industrial plant went nonextant , this was one of the most successful evolutionary periods in Earth ’s history , with multiple new species issue to take their blank space . Based on continue pollen sample , we see the earliest records of both the passionflower vine and cocoa industrial plant family unit in this time period . So , whatever other disconfirming consequences of global thaw there might be , could innovative mood alteration be a boon for the Amazon and other rainwater forests ?
Klaus Winter , one of the researchers on the project , suggests there could be a of the essence difference of opinion between ancient and New spheric warming , and that ’s bad intelligence for today ’s rain forests :
“ It is remarkable that there is so much headache about the effects of greenhouse conditions on tropical forests . However , these horror scenario in all probability have some validity if increase temperature contribute to more frequent or more serious drouth as some of the current anticipation for exchangeable scenario paint a picture . ”
Indeed , the unfluctuating moisture was cardinal to the winner of the ancient rain forest . That helped to sustain the tropical ecosystem during the ancient warming catamenia . If today ’s global heating does indeed create drought conditions , as Winter suggests is a existent possibility , then rainfall forests go right back to the verge of catastrophe .
[ Science ]
ClimateClimate changeClimatologyDiversityGlobal warmingScience
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