Amazon at the risk of changing from Forest to Savanna

A team of Europe based scientists have recently found that the tropical forests especially the Amazon forest are slowly changing into Savannah like environment.

 Highlights

According to the study around 40% of Amazon forest are at the risk of changing into Savannah like environment. This is mainly because of increased Greenhouse gas emissions and reduced rainfall.

The shrinking forest tend to lose their ability to absorb man-made emissions and thereby adding up to global warming.

Key findings

Many of the rainforest in the world are also growing into Savana like grasslands. The study has found that apart from Amazon forest, the forests in Congo Basin are also at the risk of changing into Savannah. The rainforests are highly sensitive to global climate change and also lose their ability to adapt very quickly. Once lost, it will take decades for the rain forests to return to their original state according to the report.

Savannah

These forests are characterized by wet summers and dry winters. They have high annual range of temperature. They hold sparsely populated trees with tall grasses. Forest fires are frequent in Savanna.

Savannah type of climate is most common in Sudan and hence it is also called Sudan climate.

Amazon forests

The Amazon is the biggest rainforest in the world. The forest is estimated to hold 15,000 tree species and 390 billion individual trees. Two thirds of the Amazon rainforest is found in Brazil.

Forest fires in Amazon

The increasing forest fires in Amazon forest is yet another proof for the forest turning into Savannah. In 2019 Brazil spotted more than 9500 new forest fires in the region.

In 2019 there was 85 percentage increase in forest fire as compared to 2018. The main reason behind the depletion of Amazon forest is the new policy adopted by Brazilian government. Brazil has been opening up Amazon forests towards business interests and to allow agricultural mining and logging operations in the region. This is being done to boost the GDP of the country.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2020