Hidden Highways Connect Brazilian Rainforests, Aiding Dispersal of Tree Species, Research Reveals [Video]

Forests growing along the edges of rivers in Brazil act as “highways” allowing tree species to traverse between the Atlantic and Amazon rainforests, a phenomenon that has been occurring for millions of years, according to new research led by University of Exeter and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).

Hundreds of miles of savanna and dry forest separate the two forests, where most rainforest tree species are unable to survive, a press release from University of Exeter said.

“Rather than tree species being exchanged during specific wetter periods in the past, we found that species have dispersed consistently over time,” said Dr. James Nicholls, a biodiversity genomics scientist with RBGE, in the press release. “This probably happens slowly, by generations of trees growing along the ‘highways’ provided by rivers that run through Brazil’s dry ecosystems.”

Before the study, scientists had believed that tree species only moved between the Atlantic and Amazon rainforests long ago, when Earth’s climate was …