• Question: Could they make an artificial rainforest ecosystem if the need arrises???

    Asked by rs98 to Murray, Alan on 23 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Murray Collins

      Murray Collins answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      No. When a forest is cleared completely, a vast majority of the species disappear. Some functions can be replaced by planting trees, but pretty much all of the species and complexity and diversity in the original forest is gone.

      I really think we need to stop thinking that technology can save us in every circumstance. The value biosphere (the layer of life surround the rocky planet earth) which supports life on earth, including our lives, is literally infinite.

    • Photo: Alan Winfield

      Alan Winfield answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      This sounds like a really good idea but I guess the answer depends on what your artificial rainforest ecosystem is needed for. If it’s needed to allow endangered species (including plants) to be kept from going extinct then yes I think such a system could be built. In the Eden Project in Cornwall there are giant domes that maintain the correct temperature and humidity to allow artificial ecosystems to be maintained – including one (I recall) that is a tropical rainforest. So that is a small example of an artificial rainforest ecosystem.

      But rainforests are also incredibly valuable for the way that they ‘fix’ atmospheric carbon dioxide in the trees – and therefore help to reduce the level of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. I think it would be very difficult indeed to make an artificial rainforest ecosystem that would do this job.

      I think Murray will be the best person to answer this question 🙂

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