Millions of years, trees travel through the region, too dry to survive: how they succeeded

01 February 2025, 00:27 | Technologies
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The Amazon is located in the heart of South America, and Atlantic forests on the east coast of the continent. The regions are separated by hundreds of kilometers of dry forest and savannah, which are too harsh for the survival of most trees of tropical forests. Despite this gap, many different types of trees live in two ecosystems, IFLSCIENCE writes.

For millions of years, various species of trees spread from the Amazon to the Atlantic Forests through the region, too dried up for them to survive. How exactly they make this difficult journey, it was unclear, but now a group of scientists has put forward a new idea: trees constantly use rivers as a hidden "

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Earlier, scientists suggested that the trees crossed this dry area into historical periods, when the region was much more humid and condescending to passing trees. But now the results of the study gave rise to a new theory: the trees of the Atlantic tropical forests are constantly populated by trees from the Amazon. Scientists also found that the trees spread, growing along the river, which acts as a hidden "

According to the leading author of the study from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh, Dr. James Nichols, they found that the trees did not change at all during certain moist periods in the past, but consistently drew up over time. Scientists believe that this process of migration occurs slowly, generations of trees growing along the "

During the study, scientists studied the genetics of 164 types of Inga trees that are common in the tropical forests of Latin America. Their DNA was used to reconstruct the "

The results show from 16 to 20 cases of migration of species from the Amazon to the Atlantic Forest and successful rooting. These " At the same time, scientists discovered only 1 or 2 examples of moving the species of trees in the opposite direction - from the Atlantic forest to the Amazon. This may be due to the fact that the outflow of seed seeds from the Amazon is so intense that it displaces the Atlantic Forest.



According to the co -author of the study, Professor Toby Pennington from the Department of Geography of the Exeter and the Institute of Global Systems and RGBE, the results of the study are a vivid demonstration of the fact that nature does not comply with the national boundaries established by people. These ecosystems are intertwined and deeply connected, often spreading between countries without taking into account border checks and passports. This point of view, according to the team, may have huge consequences for preserving tropical forests in South America and the rest of the world.

Previously, the trick wrote about why there is not a single bridge on the Amazon River.

Based on materials: iflscience.com



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