The Amazon rainforest is in trouble. According to Earth.com, 1,539 square miles of it, or an area around five times the size of New York was deforested in 2022 alone. So how do we preserve it for the future? Well, according to scientists, looking into the past may hold the key.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00the amazon rainforest is in trouble according to earth.com 1539 square miles of it or an area
00:11around five times the size of new york city was deforested in 2022 alone so how do we preserve
00:17it for the future well according to scientists looking into the past may hold the key a joint
00:21project by brazilian research organizations found that more than two millennia ago native amerindians
00:27fertilize the land with man-made compost bone charcoal and manure the nutrient-rich substance
00:32is called amazonian dark earth or ade and it can still be found in the area today in a lab scientists
00:38tested just how good at growing plant life ade is finding that in an experiment where just 20 percent
00:44of the substance was used in a soil mixture plants grew 3.4 times thicker than in normal soil and an
00:49experiment where plants were grown in 100 percent ade soil they grew eight times thicker with
00:54researchers finding that trees grew three to six times taller if amazonian dark earth was in their
01:00surrounding soil the researchers say this magnesium zinc phosphorus and calcium rich soil can help a
01:05deforested area return to lush rainforest the problem is it can take thousands of years to accumulate on
01:10its own however they say if humankind could make an analog of it once again specifically capturing its
01:16bevy of plant encouraging microorganisms we just might be able to undo some of the damage done to
01:21one of our planet's most important natural wonders