Comments
Wagamaga OP t1_iy7gurx wrote
As UN climate talks close in Egypt and biodiversity talks begin in Montreal, attention is on forest restoration as a solution to the twin evils roiling our planet. Forests soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide and simultaneously create habitat for organisms. So far, efforts to help forests bounce back from deforestation have typically focused on increasing one thing—trees—over anything else. But a new report uncovers a powerful, yet largely overlooked, driver of forest recovery: animals. The study by an international team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Yale School of the Environment, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute examined a series of regenerating forests in central Panama spanning 20 to 100 years post-abandonment. The unique long-term data set revealed that animals, by carrying a wide variety of seeds into deforested areas, are key to the recovery of tree species richness and abundance to old-growth levels after only 40 to 70 years of regrowth.
“Animals are our greatest allies in reforestation,” says Daisy Dent, a tropical ecologist from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the study’s senior author. “Our study prompts a rethink of reforestation efforts to be about more than just establishing plant communities.” The report also notes that situating regenerating forests near patches of old growth, and reducing hunting, encourages animals to colonize and establish. “We show that considering the wider ecosystem, as well as features of the landscape, improves restoration efforts,” says Sergio Estrada-Villegas, a biologist now at Universidad del Rosario (Bogotá, Colombia) and the study’s first author.
Seed dispersal by animals is key to forest expansion. In the tropics, over 80 percent of tree species can be dispersed by animals, which transport seeds throughout the landscape. Despite this, forest restoration efforts continue to focus on increasing tree cover rather than reestablishing the animal-plant interactions that underpin ecosystem function. “Figuring out how animals contribute to reforestation is prohibitively hard because you need detailed information about which animals eat which plants,” says Estrada-Villegas.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2021.0076
MarlenBrawndo t1_iy7h5xf wrote
This has been well known since the beginning of time..
[deleted] t1_iy7h7oh wrote
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[deleted] t1_iy7h96d wrote
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tiregroove t1_iy7hha7 wrote
But of course, humans.
poisonoakman t1_iy7i1ud wrote
But rejoice! Now science has weighed in and we can accept it as a thesis and not just the careful observations made over a million years and passed down.
captainsham_ t1_iy7i5hk wrote
We are devolving under the illusion we are getting more capable, the collapse is going to be unfathomable
I_am_Enos t1_iy7ipsh wrote
That was my thought. This seemed like a huge waste of time.
architeuthis87 t1_iy7iskv wrote
Wildlife also plays a key role in distribution of phosphorus.
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-wildlife-phosphorus-crisis.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969722021167
Blitzed_ca t1_iy7jckx wrote
Too bad we’re also running out of those
Maybe we can just let the free market sort nature out
[deleted] t1_iy7khla wrote
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UVSoaked t1_iy7kifg wrote
Humans are animals, though.
enemy_lettuce838 t1_iy7krj3 wrote
"Hey, this works like we thought it does, right?
"Yep, like we thought it does."
So at least there's that.
stress-n-depress t1_iy7uct0 wrote
Just exceedingly destructive and selfish ones
SpaceCadetSinchi t1_iy83cx8 wrote
It’s great to know that over 60% of animals on the planet have disappeared in the last half century or so. Feels hopeful. Glad I’m never gonna make it to retirement age.
nutbutterguy t1_iy87455 wrote
Animals that should be culled.
[deleted] t1_iy8auia wrote
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Juggs_gotcha t1_iy8htvt wrote
I'm just going to state the obvious here, the natural processes for forest recovery are on the span of multiple human lifespans. The rate of destruction is exponentially higher than any possible recovery. No human alive now will live to see the forests that their fathers saw. No grandchild will live to see what their parents saw, as a matter of fact. The damage is catastrophic.
MLCarter1976 t1_iy8io1z wrote
Mother Nature knew this one trick!
efvie t1_iy8k0xm wrote
And the leading cause of deforestation and habitat destruction is animal agriculture.
Sounds like animals are both the latch and the key.
Tahoeclown t1_iy8ksui wrote
Its almost as if its a whole ecosystem working together! Who’d a thunk it?!
elralpho t1_iy8qb01 wrote
Would you believe him if he said no?
BeowulfShaeffer t1_iy9c24w wrote
It’s encouraging to see that once humanity completely collapses the forests will be healthy again in less than 100 years.
ehjhockey t1_iy9igf5 wrote
Probably the most significant scientific accomplishment that I’ve seen in my lifetime was the discovery of the Higs Boson (probably butchered that) particle and that really was just “is that thing we think is there actually there?” “Yup there it is”
RedditIsDogshit1 t1_iy9l1ak wrote
I vouch when science chines in more as a strong checkbox that we can fund more money to whatever insights were drawn
[deleted] t1_iy9n1qp wrote
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becritical t1_iy9nlpp wrote
Yes exactly, they are beating this to death, it seems tropical zoologists only care about seed dispersal.
Yung_l0c t1_iyacbw5 wrote
Quarterly profits is the answer
zachmoe t1_iyae4j3 wrote
Yah, just get Mr. Beast to trick other people to do it for $$$.
[deleted] t1_iyaf4v8 wrote
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reyntime t1_iyagwsx wrote
And to create area for wild animals to thrive and to rewild, we need to massively cut back on meat consumption, one of the largest drivers of biodiversity loss and land use/degradation/deforestation.
looking_for_helpers t1_iyb7tsq wrote
If we become a weekend-only carnivores, we can cut our meat consumption by up to 71%
islandstyls t1_iyb8i06 wrote
This is the sad part - people think we can actually bring back what we've destroyed. Nature's destruction has a lasting and long effect, longer than any of us will live to see.
DawnOfTheTruth t1_iyc38jd wrote
Everything comes down to poo.
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