Rainforest collapse

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Forest fragmentation. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2011.

Fishbone pattern of rainforest fragmentation

Rainforest collapse refers to the actual past and theoretical future destruction of rainforests through a process of habitat fragmentation to the point where little rainforest biome is left, only to survive in isolated refugia.

In the Carboniferous, coal forests, great tropical wetlands, extended over much of Euramerica (Europe and America). This land supported towering lycopsids which fragmented and collapsed abruptly.^[1] The collapse of the rainforests during the Carboniferous has been attributed to several possible hypotheses including climate change.^[2] Specifically, at this time climate became cooler and drier, conditions that are not favourable to the growth of rainforests and much of the biodiversity within them. This sudden collapse affected several large groups including lycopsids and amphibians. Reptiles prospered in the new environment due to adaptations that let them thrive in drier conditions.^[1]

Future rainforest collapse is a hypothesis only. Rainforests may collapse due to habit fragmentation by human beings. A classic pattern of fragmentation is occurring in many rainforests including those of the Amazon, specifically a 'fishbone' pattern formed by the development of roads into the forest. This is of great concern, not only for the loss of a biome with many untapped resources but also because animal species extinction is known to correlate with habitat fragmentation.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Sahney, S., Benton, M.J. & Falcon-Lang, H.J. (2010). "Rainforest collapse triggered Pennsylvanian tetrapod diversification in Euramerica" (PDF). Geology 38 (12): 1079–1082. doi:10.1130/G31182.1. http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/38/12/1079. 
2. ^ Fielding, C.R., Frank, T.D., Birgenheier, L.P., Rygel, M.C., Jones, A.T., and Roberts, J. (20). "Stratigraphic imprint of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age in eastern Australia: A record of alternating glacial and nonglacial climate regime". Geological Society of London Journal: 129–140. 
3. ^ Rosenzweig, Michael L. (1995). Species diversity in space and time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.