• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says July 4, 2022
‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation July 4, 2022
Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History July 4, 2022
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate News Network

Forests’ future threatened by seed-eaters’ plight

December 27, 2015
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

Toucans spread large seeds

Toucans spread large seeds

 

Climate change imperils many forest-dwelling species, including those which are vital in helping the trees to regenerate by spreading their seeds.

LONDON, 27 December, 2015 – Climate change is a threat not just to the large predators that keep ecosystems healthy or to the mammals that feed on the fruits and foliage of the forests.

It could trigger even more global warming by extinguishing those animals that help maintain the forests as substantial reservoirs of atmospheric carbon, according to Brazilian, British, Spanish  and Finnish scientists.

So far the worries about the consequences of climate change on biodiversity have been in one direction: researchers have repeatedly warned that manmade climate change presents a hazard for a large proportion of the planet’s more vulnerable species.

But researchers from São Paulo State University, the University of East Anglia and the University of Helsinki report in the journal Science Advances that they looked at the problem the other way round: what would mammalian extinction do for the forests?

Carbon store

The question matters because the forests store 40% of the world’s terrestrial carbon, and the clearing, burning and degradation of the world’s forests is responsible for somewhere between 7% and 17% of global carbon emissions.

However, they write, tropical carbon faces another silent threat: the loss of the large fruit-eating birds and mammals that disperse seeds and make possible the regeneration of hardwood species that bear large seeds. An estimated one in five of the forest vertebrates are under threat from hunters.

So the São Paulo team took a closer look at what went on in Brazil’s Atlantic forests, and studied the lifestyles and behaviour of 813 species containing 101,211 individual animals that were important to more than 2,000 trees in 31 communities. They found that, without help from the bigger fruit-eaters, the ones more appetising to the hunters, the trees were in trouble.

“Large birds and mammals provide almost all the seed dispersal services for large seeded plants,” said Carlos Peres from the University of East Anglia in the UK. “Several large vertebrates are threatened by hunting, illegal trade and habitat loss. But the steep decline of the megafauna in over-hunted tropical forest ecosystems can bring about large unforeseen impacts.”

“When we lose large frugivores we are losing dispersal and recruitment functions of large seeded trees and therefore the composition of tropical forests changes”

“We show that the decline and extinction of large animals will over time induce a decline in large hardwood trees. This in turn negatively affects the capacity of tropical forests to store carbon and therefore their potential to counter climate change.”

Time and again, researchers have found that diversity is the key to a healthy ecosystem: the greater the variety of life, the healthier and more resilient the habitat becomes. In crowded ecosystems, there are many intricacies of interdependence involved in species survival. 

Professor Mauro Galetti from São Paulo State University said: “The big frugivores [fruit-eaters], such as large primates, the tapir, the toucans, among other large animals, are the only ones able to effectively disperse plants that have large seeds. Usually, the trees that have large seeds are also big trees with dense wood that store more carbon.”

And Carolina Bello, a PhD student from São Paulo State University, and the lead author, added: “When we lose large frugivores we are losing dispersal and recruitment functions of large seeded trees and therefore the composition of tropical forests changes. The result is a forest dominated by smaller trees with milder woods which stock less carbon.” – Climate News Network



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

stux / Pixabay
Air & Marine

Big Seven European Airlines Lag on Reducing Sky-High Emissions: Report

June 13, 2022
76
Ars Electronica/flickr
Solar

Unique ‘Smartflower’ Microgrid to Power Saskatchewan High School

June 13, 2022
155
http://midwestenergynews.com/2013/10/24/as-pipeline-concerns-mount-a-renewed-focus-on-the-great-lakes-enbridge-mackinac-line-5/
Pipelines / Rail Transport

Line 5 Closure Brings Negligible Rise in Gas Prices, Enbridge Consultant Finds

June 10, 2022
207

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

angela n./flickr

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
122
Wikimedia Commons

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
123
U.S. Navy/picryl

Montreal to Host New NATO Climate Centre as Military Analyst Confronts Global ‘Hyperthreat’

July 4, 2022
81
opinion polling gender green recovery climate action

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
80
Maurits90/Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco Commuter Train Derailed by Scorching Track Temperatures, Extreme Heat

July 4, 2022
49
EdmondMeinfelder/flickr

Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History

July 4, 2022
35

Recent Posts

Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons

Youth Climate Case Moves to Top Tribunal in European Court

July 4, 2022
34
Seci/wikimedia commons

Saudi Aramco Talks Net-Zero, Plans to Boost Production Through 2035

July 4, 2022
21
Keith Weller/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Methane Plan Gives Big Ag a Free Pass

July 4, 2022
28
Fadi Hage/wikimedia commons

Indoor Farming Revolution Comes with Significant Carbon Cost

July 4, 2022
37
Mont SUTTON snow terrain

Southern Quebec Towns Scramble for Solutions as Water Sources Dwindle

July 4, 2022
37
Pxhere

Marine Stewardship Figures Prominently in Latest Project Drawdown List

July 4, 2022
24
Next Post
Coal allowed industry to move from countryside to town and to find plenty of patient workers.

Markets cannot solve the climate crisis

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}