In the Amazon forest, trees become increasingly large: a phenomenon that has been going on for decades and that does not seem to want to slow down. A strangeness? A mystery? In reality no: there is a very simple explanation for this phenomenon, and it is obviously linked to climate change. As explained by a study published on Nature Plantsin fact, the increase in the concentration of co2 In the atmosphere it has a direct effect on the size of the trees (in the Amazon and beyond): the more there is, the bigger they become. And for once it’s good news.
The Amazon grows. The study is the result of a gigantic work that has involved 60 universities from all over the world, and which has monitored the size of the trees of the Amazon in 188 different places for a period of over thirty years. The data collected demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that, in the monitored areas, trees are becoming increasingly large: they grow 3.2% every decade, both the larger ones and the smaller saplings.
Green giants. The reason for this newborn gigantism is already mentioned: if there is more co2 In the atmosphere it means that trees can make more photosynthesis, growing more quickly and reaching higher size than those of their predecessors who had less carbon dioxide available. There is a further positive effect of this growth: the larger trees can store more co2 in organic form, subtracting it from the atmosphere.
Conclusions. The study also demonstrates, indirectly, that the total amount of co2 “kept” by the Amazon Forest, it is increasing, parallel to the growth of the size of the trees. Or at least, this applies to those pieces of still virgin forest, where the plants have had decades to grow: one of the problems of deforestation is that it is not enough to replace the saplings where the giants have been cut, because there is a need for a very long time because the new virgults have the same impact.
The forest helps you. However, the study shows one thing: in the face of a dramatic climatic situation, the trees of the Amazon are responding with a remarkable resilience – perhaps they are not thrived, but they manage to turn in their favor also an emergency situation such as the excess of CO2. A discovery that should give us a stimulus to help them even more, considered how they help us.
