Cacao, a Product of Global Warming?

There is evidence of a past warming period in Earth’s history.  A previous spell of global warming, if you will.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute participated with other organizations in a research study to find out what effects global warming on our planet’s past vegetation – and by past, I mean the Paleocene Epoch!

Something really interesting caught my attention as I was reading a summary of the findings.  Contrary to the belief that tropical forests were devastated under the conditions of global warming, new plants evolved at a faster rate than ones that became extinct.  Pollen from the cacao plant family (and the passionflower plant family) appeared suddenly, for the first time, during this warming event.

Some computer models reveal a disastrous outcome for tropical rain forests from the greenhouse effects during a global warming scenario.  This new study predicts that a forest’s genetic diversity will increase as much as 50% and a wealth of new species will make their debut all because of the heat.

A copy of the research can be found at Science Magazine.  The title of the study is “Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation”.  You can click that link for an abstract.

This is hot stuff!

Bryn Kirk

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