[typoon]

http://news.com.com/Amazon+releasing...7601&subj=news

The rain forests of South America are holding onto carbon dioxide for a lot less time than previously believed, which raises implications for how to deal with global warming, according to a new study.

Most of the carbon dioxide being "exhaled" or released by wetlands and rivers has spent around five years sequestered in trees, according to a new study performed by researchers from the University of Washington, Rice University and the Stroud Water Research Center.

The tropical forests in the 2.4 million square miles of the Amazon river basin gulp in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Scientists have long believed that most of the carbon dioxide ingested by the forest stays there until the trees decompose decades later. Carbon found in water samples have been shown to be 40 to 1,000 years old, according to Emilio Mayorga of the University of Washington.

Because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that can trap solar energy, many scientists postulated that the rain forests could help curb the impact of global warming caused by industrialization. Policy makers in turn could view saving forests as a form of carbon-credit trading.

Mayorga, Carrie Masiello of Rice and Anthony Aufdenkampe of Stroud, however, decided to also measure atmospheric carbon in the region. They found that an enormous amount of carbon dioxide, exhaled by river organisms, is being released after only a few years.

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"Previous studies failed to detect the rapid recycling of forest carbon because they never dated the invisible greenhouse gas as it is literally exhaled by the river organisms," said Aufdenkampe in a prepared statement. "They (previous observers) assumed that the return of this forest carbon to the atmosphere must be a slow process that offered at least temporary respite from greenhouse effects."

A full report will be released in the July 28 issue of Nature.

Although scientists and policy makers differ over how much human activity they believe contributes to global warming, the growing consensus is that the atmosphere is definitely getting hotter.

While humans MAY be part of the cause for global warming this shows that WE are NOT the only ones causing it and that it is caused in part by nature. I wonder what the evironmentalists will be saying about this article. <sarcasm> This can't be nature won't cause this it's all Mankind's fault for global warming. We need to stop driving out evil cars.</sarcasm>

[TETENAL]

It's not too difficult to understand actually.

The carbon of which the trees are made is taken out of the atmosphere. The larger the mass of the trees the more carbon is bound. It doesn't matter how fast the rotting/photosynthesis cycle is; all that matters it the mass of the trees. Deforesting means increasing the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Oil and coal is forest mass that had been bound forever. Burning it means increasing the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.

[budster101]

Glad to see that. Oh, wait is that a bad thing?

[sminch]

i've never understood the idea of forests which currently exist trapping co2 - i mean, they're holding co2, and they photosynthesizing so pulling in more, but at the same time as this other trees within the forest are dying, rotting, and releasing co2. it's not like forests just keep growing ad infinitum - they reach a certain biomass, asymptote out, and then just self-regulate. planting new forests will pull in co2 until they reach their natural peak but after that, surely the net effect is 0?

typoon - i don't think anyone has ever claimed that humanity is the only thing causing climate change. i mean, it's been going on all the time for billions of years, with everything from bacteria right up to whales all pumping out co2. even ignoring the effects organisms are having, geologic events cause climate change as well. the only thing "the evironmentalists" will be saying about the fact that it is caused in part by nature is, well, we knew that already, but cheers for pointing it out.

sminch

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by budster101

Glad to see that. Oh, wait is that a bad thing?

Go back to sticking your head in the sand .

[budster101]

Why the personal attack?

[bgmark13]

yes...but to be on the safe side these forests should be cut down...in case of forest fires...better to be safe and stop this massive release of co2...

[design219]

Wow, dreadging up some old threads.

Well, while you're at it, we should kill off all the animals so they can stop making CO2. We can be vegans and stop global warming!

(ok, alert for some of you, that too was sarcasm)

[Demonhood]