African rainforest is getting browner

New York Times : The rainforest of central Africa may be suffering from global warming. Although much attention has been focused on the effects of reduced rainfall on the largest expanse of rainforest in the world—the Amazon in South America—similar problems may be occurring in the rainforest of Africa’s Congo River basin. Average rainfall in the region has been decreasing for several decades, and that shift in climate appears to be causing the trees to be less green, which indicates a loss of chlorophyll and, hence, reduction in the ability to photosynthesize. That finding comes from Liming Zhou of the University at Albany in New York and colleagues, whose paper appears online today in Nature. If the trend continues, the second largest expanse of rainforest in the world may be forced to give way to more drought-tolerant species of vegetation. Further observation and field studies will be needed to better assess the situation and determine whether the change is due to anthropogenic climate change or is merely part of a natural cycle.