Using a laser scan of the Earth's surface, British and Brazilian scientists recently discovered the tallest Amazon rainforest tree - an almost 89-meter red angel (Dinizia excelsais). It is almost the same height as the Statue of Liberty (93 meters) and just above the famous sculpture in Volgograd Motherland (85 meters). Against this background, Christ, towering over Rio de Janeiro, looks very small - the size of the structure is only 38 m.
The new discovery was made in an 11-day expedition by a group of British and Brazilian scientists in northern Brazil, near the Jari river - a northern tributary of the Amazon and away from places of active human activity. The giant representative of the legume family, also known as partridge tree, exceeds the previous Amazon champion by 30 meters.
The giant is over 400 years old. The greatest value of such trees is their unique ability to bind up to 40 tons of carbon, which makes them a valuable environmental resource.
The forest area where the tree giants were discovered was examined from an airplane using LIDAR, a laser remote sensing method that is also used in cars without a driver. This technology has been successfully used by the Brazilian National Space Research Institute to scan random sections of rainforest.
Protecting the rainforests that are so densely populated with this species is critical as they are a natural resource that helps convert carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The new discovery on a global scale does not break the record. It belongs to the California mahogany - sequoia, which reached almost 116 meters. However, the Brazilians are not discouraged - the Amazon rainforest covers an area of 5.5 million square km, and since this area is quite inaccessible, there may be even taller trees, which researchers are not yet aware of.
Blogs
