One of the GEOstories for Earth's Natural Systems is Forest Elephants: Valuing Nature. It explores the role of African forest elephants and their dung in the forest ecosystem and explores the value of of elephants in carbon capture. African forest elephants create corridors by knocking down trees, trampling undergrowth, smashing partly decomposed logs on the forest floor, stripping bark and digging up roots. This encourages the growth of larger, taller trees, and assists in nutrient recycling as it reduces the density of the forest. Elephant dung fertilises the soil and disperses seeds. The forest elephant’s role in maintaining biodiversity makes it a keystone species in Africa’s rainforests. African forest elephants and forests play important roles in the carbon cycle. Large elephants are a carbon reservoir, and through the process of photosynthesis forest plants capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and convert it to primary biomass. The larger, slow-growing trees that elephant allow to grow store more carbon. Below are a couple of videos that you might like to use to support teaching of this GEOstory to engage your students.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorsLorraine Chaffer Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
|