“Hunting and poaching threatens 19 percent of all tropical forest vertebrates, with large vertebrates, including frugivores, disproportionately favored by hunters, the study says. As the frugivore population declines — a process called “defaunation” — fewer seeds of carbon-dense trees are spread throughout the forest, study co-author Mauro Galetti, a Sao Paulo State University ecologist, said.
“The result is a new forest dominated by smaller trees with milder woods which stock less carbon,” study lead author Carolina Bello, a Sao Paulo State University PhD student, said in a statement.” From: www.climatecentral.org
GR: It seems common sense that wildlife loss injures ecosystems and that impaired ecosystems sequester less carbon. It also seems common sense that defaunation is a lawless species’ evil act as horrendous as genocide.
