- Re: Is it possible to re-plant rainforest? Archived Message
Posted by mack
on August 3, 2019, 8:07 pm, in reply to "Is it possible to re-plant rainforest?"
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Hi S Depends which rainforest - boreal or tropical? The answer is yes, you can (to both), but there are a lot of factors to consider. Boreal rainforest zones have deeper, more stable and more nutrient rich soils than their tropical counterparts, so it depends on what degree of degradation the area has undergone. These areas, generally speaking, would be easier to replant than tropical. Tropical rainforest soils are nutrient poor, thin and unstable - the system relies more on the maintenance of the canopy and the constant (and relatively rapid) cycling of organic matter. Take that away and the decline of what topsoil there is is rapid. It's interesting that in the Amazonian forests there are a disproportionate number of trees that are useful to humans, likely due to the gardening activities of the people who live there (for obvious reasons). The indigenous people of N America were largely what could reasonably be described as horticultural societies too (as opposed to agricultural). So there are similarities there that indicate that selective and sensibly scaled manipulation of the species is fine and does not upset the balance. Clear felling and turning over to a season or two of cropping followed by cattle rearing (in tropical zones) is much more likely to destroy the potential for reinstating tropical forest without some seriously expensive and intensive interventions. It's a short question, but an extremely complex one, like said, the answers depend on a great deal of factors that are not static and are site specific. Cheers |