{"id":855,"date":"2004-03-16T18:54:47","date_gmt":"2004-03-16T18:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=855"},"modified":"2011-05-01T18:33:13","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T23:33:13","slug":"ecology-undisturbed-rainforests-disturbed-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=855","title":{"rendered":"ecology: &#8220;undisturbed&#8221; rainforests disturbed after all"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Amazonian rainforests are changing, even in  areas untouched by human activities such as logging, clearing, or  burning &#8212; and rising levels of carbon dioxide may be to blame. Over the  past 20 years, the species composition of the &#8220;pristine&#8221; Amazon has  altered to favor tall, fast-growing trees, a team of US and Brazilian  researchers reported in the March 11 <em>Nature.<\/em> They suspect that the  carbon dioxide, which plants use for growth, is fertilizing the  rainforest, giving the faster-growing species the advantage over  slower-growing neighbors, which are in decline. The authors warn that  this composition change may affect the rainforests&#8217; ability to absorb  carbon dioxide,implicated in global warming: Faster-growing trees  produce wood less dense than slower-growing varieties, meaning they&#8217;ll  store less carbon. &#8220;The changes in Amazonian forests really jump out at  you,&#8221; lead author William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research  Institute in Panama stated in a press release. &#8220;It&#8217;s a little scary to  realize that seemingly pristine forests can change so quickly and  dramatically.&#8221; He added: &#8220;If you change the tree communities, then other  species &#8212; especially the animals that feed on and pollinate the trees  &#8212; will undoubtedly change as well.&#8221; <\/span><\/p>\n<h6><em>This news brief appeared in the Discoveries column of the <\/em>Boston Globe&#8217;s<em> Health\/Science section on 3\/16\/2004.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Amazonian rainforests are changing, even in areas untouched by human activities such as logging, clearing, or burning &#8212; and rising levels of carbon dioxide may be to blame. Over the past 20 years, the species composition of the &#8220;pristine&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/?p=855\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston-globe-3","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agnieszkabiskup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}