SEARCH
A great gift
for crisis deniers!
Humoring the Horror of the
Converging Emergencies
94 color pages
$24.99 now $15!
Or read FREE online!
Twitter
Ping this story
in social media:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
NowPublic
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
|
 |
Posted Mon Apr 4 2011: from
PhysOrg:
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Declining mangroves shield against global warming http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1301924811
Mangroves, which have declined by up to half over the last 50 years, are an important bulkhead against climate change, a study released on Sunday has shown for the first time....
Destruction of these tropical coastal woodlands accounts for about 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation, the second largest source of CO2 after fossil fuel combustion, the study found.
Fewer trees not only mean less CO2 absorbed from the air, but also the release of carbon stocks that have been accumulating in shallow-water sediment over millennia.
Mangroves -- whose twisted, exposed roots grace coastlines in more than 100 countries -- confer many benefits on humans living in their midst.
The brackish tidal waters in which the trees thrive are a natural nursery for dozens of species of fish and shrimp essential to commercial fisheries around the world.
Another major "ecosystem service," in the jargon of environmental science, is protection from hurricanes and storm surges.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
[Read more stories about:
wetlands, weather extremes, rising sea level, deforestation, anthropogenic change]
|
 |
|
New!:
| |
|
No reader quips yet -- be the first! | |
|
Got a PaniQuip?
|
|
|
We reserve the
right to reuse, remove, or refuse any entry.
| |
|
|
'Doc Jim says:
|
|
|
 |
|
I bet that passive-voice "decline" has an active causal agent behind it.
|
|
|
|
|
Want to explore more?
Try the PaniCloud!
|
