Tropical Forests in Copenhagen

The future of our planet's forests ultimately depends upon the monetary motivation provided to leave them standing. If the only thing standing between a family and their dinner is a couple of trees, the forests will never survive. Releasing a quarter of all anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, there is no doubt that offering incentives to curb deforestation is the simplest way to go about decreasing humanity’s carbon footprint (compared to changing global patterns of consumption or the energy infrastructure of entire countries). Today in Copenhagen, the EU pledged $2.12 billion over the next 3 years to help reduce deforestation around the globe. Another important policy was proposed to provide $25 billion to 10 tropical nations in order to assist their efforts in saving their forests. We should hope that this policy comes to fruition while keeping a watchful eye on whether or not the rest of the world jumps on board as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8407112.stm

http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2934

Perturbation and Species Diversity

I discovered an interesting article that was recently published in the Journal of Ecology. The authors’ research highlights the importance of species diversity on ecosystem perturbation. Focusing on the insurance hypothesis, they demonstrated that species diversity was correlated with the recovery of a grassland ecosystem after drought. However, they were not able to find a direct correlation with species diversity and resistance to drought.
van%20Ruijven%20and%20Berendse%20JofEcology%202009%20resistance%20after%20drought.pdf