Deserts: traps at CO2?
Friday, 25 February 2011 to 22: 05
repeats:
26.02.2011 to 10: 00
12.03.2011 to 05: 00
Deserts: traps at CO2?
(Germany, 2010, 52mn)
HR
The existence of a "vegetal skin" in arid zones would limit the damage caused by climate change.
Our planet is made up for a third of deserts, savannas, steppes and other glacial expanses. 30% of this area, or more than 50 million km2 (five times Europe), is covered with vast patches of micro-vegetation composed of cyanophyceae (blue-green algae or cyanobacteria), chlorophyceae (green algae) , lichens and mosses. This sort of "vegetable skin" is found in places as different as the Greenland ice cap or the Queensland savannah in Australia. However, researchers have found that these "biological crusts" have the property of fixing nitrogen and especially CO2. According to them, it is urgent to protect them, even to promote their development in regions where desertification is progressing.
http://www.arte.tv/fr/semaine/244,broad ... =2011.html
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