This has raised questions about a possible link between the gigantic emissions from the fires in the South American tropics and the damage to the earth's
protective ozone shield over Antarctica.
UV - B - induced forest sterility: Implications
of ozone shield failure in Earth's largest extinction.
From Zürich, lead author Dr. William Ball says Earth's
ozone shield against harmful radiation continues to weaken — despite an improvement of big ozone holes over the Poles.
«With pulses of volcanic eruptions happening, we would expect pulsed
ozone shield weakening, which may have led to forest declines previously observed in the fossil record.»
The title is «UV - B — induced forest sterility: Implications of
ozone shield failure in Earth's largest extinction.»
By reducing fertility of several widespread gymnosperm lineages,
pulsed ozone shield weakening could have induced repeated terrestrial biosphere destabilization and food web collapse without exerting a direct «kill» mechanism on land plants or animals.
Absorption of solar radiation
by ozone shields the terrestrial surface from harmful ultraviolet light and warms the stratosphere, producing maximum temperatures of − 15 to 10 °C (5 to 50 °F) at an altitude of 50 km (30 miles).
From Zürich, lead author Dr. William Ball says Earth's
ozone shield against harmful radiation continues to weaken — despite an improvement of big ozone holes...
The title is «UV - B — induced forest sterility: Implications
of ozone shield failure in Earth's largest extinction.»
A similar fate may have befallen forests 252 million years ago, when massive bursts of volcanic gases likely weakened Earth's
ozone shield.
Ozone shields our planet from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, but it may be also be keeping bees away from their favorite flowers, according to a new study.
When the researchers ran their model with the lower oxygen estimates,
the ozone shield never formed, leaving the modest puffs of methane that escaped the oceans at the mercy of destructive photochemistry.
The protective
ozone shield is recovering.
From Zürich, lead author Dr. William Ball says Earth's
ozone shield against harmful radiation continues to weaken — despite an improvement of big ozone holes over the Poles.
The protective
ozone shield is recovering.
Another study from University of California Berkeley says a weakened
ozone shield 251 million years ago drove the mass extinction of forests, and all life that depended on them.
From Zürich, lead author Dr. William Ball says Earth's
ozone shield against harmful radiation continues to weaken — despite an improvement of big ozone holes...
The result: loss of
the ozone shield.