Release+of+Carbon+from+Rainforests+2

**__//Rainforests' Impact on Climate Change // __** It has always been the accepted theory that Central and South American woodlands are positive carbon combatents because they help fight greenhouse gas buildup. The forests do this by absorbing carbon released into the atmosphere and then storing it away. Recently however, scientists such as [|Terry McGlynn at the University of San Diego] and others are exploring the negative ways that the rainforests could be involved in recent climate change: which is releasing more carbon into the atmosphere as their environment changes. The scientists' forming conclusion is that minor weather changes, especially ones involving increases in temperature could make the rainforests into huge carbon dioxide emitters. The idea behind this theory is that if the world continues to warm, tropical forests will decrease, perhaps even almost disappearing into grasslands containing a few trees. The problem with this is that when trees die they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This can happen when forests and trees decompose or when they are burned down by fires. The latter of which is a known unnatural occurence in rainforests in the Americas. Though the scientists can't yet realize the full potential of the carbon-climate relationship, they already do know that tropical rainforests play a big role in the process of regulating carbon in the world's atmosphere. So, it's extremely possible that how the world's rain forests will behave when their climate's temperatures rise has a possibly gigantic negative implications in global warming.

With a forbodding message McGlynn says that, "With the climate changes that we expect ... we can't bank on the forest to suck up carbon. If anything, we can imagine that this forest ... is going to start shedding a bunch of carbons once the forest gets stressed."
 * //__[[image:http://www.mobot.org/hort/images/Clim1-1.jpg width="306" height="302"]]

How it Happens and Why Carbon is Dangerous __//** The way that carbon is affecting the climate is because of its cycle. The carbon cycle is the movement of carbon dioxide in between the biosphere, atmosphere, geosphere and oceans. In the cycle process carbon is exchanged between plants and the atmosphere. The plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in what's called the photosynthesis process, and then releases the dioxide during the process called respiration. Carbon dioxide is dangerous becuase it's a greenhouse gas that traps infared heat radiation in the atmosphere and keeps it there, warming the planet. Thus, rainforests releasing more carbon to go through the cycle and warm the planet. This is definetly a recent subject that has the potential to have catostrophic consequences.

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 __**//The Never-Ending Cycle//**__ If rainforests achieve their full potentia negative affect on the climate, it'll be quite the ironic situtation. Studies have shown that the forests own carbon emissions are possibly responsible for the new lack of moisture and dissaperence of plant life and creatures in the rainforests. An example of rainforests being affected by their own carbon emissions is the disapperence of the golden toad. For about the past 25 years Dr. Alan Pounds has been looking for the distinctive orange amphibian in its restricted habitat. About 1,500 toads were sighted in 1987. But now the breeding pools remain desolate, and the toad has not been spotted since 1991. So, with the problem of the rainforests releasing carbon, heavily supported by research on tree growth, tropical air temperatures and CO2 measurments indicating a warming climate showing that tropical forests may soon be releasing more carbon dioxide than they can absorb it's quite evident that the forests are destroying themselves.

http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/tropics-oceans.html (http://www.paramuspost.com/article/php/2006092910235633) http://www.scienceclarified.com/images/uesc_02_img0109.jpg http://www.columbia.edu/~vjd1/carbon.htm http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/carbon/efcarbon.html

By: Andrew Bryce and Ben Collins