From: Bloomberg
Fossilized remnants of long-ago rainforests discovered in Illinois coal mines are providing clues about how trees and their ecosystems were able to withstand weather extremes from ice ages to global warming.
Tropical trees were pushed to the brink of extinction during ice ages and then bounced back to help form most of Earth’s coal resources 300 million years ago, according to a study published today in the journal Geology.
“Within certain limits, rainforests are resilient to climate change,” Howard Falcon-Lang from the University of London’s Royal Holloway College said ahead of the publication. “However, extreme climate change may push rainforests beyond a point of no return.”
The results of the study may help researchers understand the impact of climate change on forests in Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere in the world. The Amazon basin in 2005 became a net emitter of carbon dioxide rather than absorbing the greenhouse gas as warmer Atlantic waters resulted in a drought in the world’s largest tropical rain forest.
At 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles), the Amazonian forest is multiples larger in size than California and contains one-fifth of all species on Earth.
Rocks in coal mines in Illinois, where the scientists studied the ancient fossils, showed evidence of climate change over millions of years, the study said.