Tropical forests in Southeast Asia could be more resilient to climate change than widely assumed so long as a diverse landscape is allowed to remain in place, according to new research by the University of Sydney.
The new research study ‘Forest mosaics, not savanna corridors, dominated in Southeast Asia during the Last Glacial Maximum’ was conducted by an international team of scientists led by the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney.
The study team led by School of Geosciences lecturer Rebecca Hamilton analysed records from 59 paleoenvironmental sites across tropical Southeast Asia. The study published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US wanted to see whether a large grassland materialised across the region during the last glacial maximum, which lasted some 10,000 years from 29,000 to 19,000 years ago. This period saw the coverage of ice sheets and glaciers reach its peak on Earth, remaking the planet’s landscape.
The study based on pollen grains preserved in lakes and other chemical markers, found that the tropical forests in Southeast Asia persisted during the period of last glacial maximum even as grasslands expanded. This shows the resilience of these forests in the face of a changing climate.
However, these beleaguered forests cannot weather changes in the climate without our help, which should primarily consist of leaving them alone without further deforestation.
Dr Hamilton said, “Maintaining forest types that facilitate resilience should be a conservation objective for the region. Our work suggests that prioritising protection of forests above 1,000 metres alongside seasonally dry forest types could be important for preventing future ‘savannisation’ of Asia’s rainforests.”
Savannisation refers to the metamorphosis of a landscape, typically a forested area, into a savannah ecosystem, which typically involves open wooded plains. The change is typically induced by climate variations, human interventions or natural ecological dynamics. M