[shkkmo]

> The author is arguing that the Amazon rainforest is in perfect equilibrium without citing any studies or evidence

The author argued no such thing, You are making up claims adn attributing them to the author, so perhaps an even closer reading of the blog post would be beneficial.

>> So, in all practical terms, the net contribution of the Amazon ECOSYSTEM (not just the plants alone) to the world's oxygen is effectively zero. The same is pretty much true of any ecosystem on Earth, at least on the timescales that are relevant to humans (less than millions of years).

The paper you cited is talking about carbon dioxide, not oxygen. The net effect on global O2 levels of carbon sequestration is minimal and not significant on human time scales. That same carbon sequestration has a significant impact on global CO2 because there is much less CO2 in the atmosphere.

[EB66]

> The author argued no such thing, You are making up claims adn attributing them to the author, so perhaps an even closer reading of the blog post would be beneficial.

Please go read the article again. That's exactly what he's saying. He is saying that Amazon rainforest O2 production and consumption are in equilibrium.

> The paper you cited is talking about carbon dioxide, not oxygen. The net effect on global O2 levels of carbon sequestration is minimal and not significant on human time scales. That same carbon sequestration has a significant impact on global CO2 because there is much less CO2 in the atmosphere.

For heaven's sake, please read the study. If you'd rather not read the study, then just Google until you find a satisfactory source that explains that net O2 production and net CO2 sequestration strongly correlate with one another.

[shkkmo]

> He is saying that Amazon rainforest O2 production and consumption are in equilibrium.

where?

> net O2 production and net CO2 sequestration strongly correlate with one another.

yes, but we have ~500 times more O2 than CO2 in the atmosphere so the effects on atmospheric composition are not anywhere close to equivalent.

edit: Let me put it another way. We have so much oxygen that if we were to use any significant amount (say 1%) of that oxygen burning sequestered carbon (rainforests, oil, etc) we would have increased the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by something like ~2000% (and would already be totally screwed in many, many ways)

[EB66]

I think you need to look up the definition for "equilibrium" and then re-read the article once more...

Either way I'm done with this tangent.