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Death in the rainforest

Climate change may have doubled the death rate of rainforest trees over the last 50 years. Plus monkeypox, Covid infection in the gut and a vaccine against Epstein Barr virus.

Tree mortality in tropical moist forests in Australia has been increasing since the mid 1980s. The death rate of trees appears to have doubled over that time period. According to an international team of researchers, the primary cause is drier air in these forests, the consequence of human-induced climate change. According to ecologist David Bauman, a similar process is likely underway in tropical forests on other continents.

Also in the programme: the outbreaks of monkeypox in Europe and North America… Could SARS-CoV-2 infection lingering in the gut be a cause of Long Covid? News of a vaccine against Epstein Barr virus, the cause of mononucleosis, various cancers and multiple sclerosis.

Image:
Credit: Getty Images

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

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30 minutes

Last on

Sun 22 May 2022 01:32GMT

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  • Thu 19 May 2022 19:32GMT
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  • Sun 22 May 2022 01:32GMT

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