Technically there is a lot of potential science that can be unlocked from tropical rainforests and also coral reefs but it is mostly in the field of biology and pharmaceuticals.
Both of those ecosystems are full of unknown chemical compounds that could be the next generation of antibiotics and there are applications extend to many fields of science. But it tends not to be the sort of science that has progresses human society - or at least not yet. So its probably not going to help you get to Alpha Centauri...
As far as soil productivity goes the problem with chopping rainforests down for plantations is that the heavy monsoonal rains tend to leach much of the nutrients out of the soil.
Some might be interested to know this but apparently some Amazonian communities figured out that creating charcoal from low intensity fires (often called bio-char) and mixing it into the soil created a new type of soil called Terra Preta.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
Essentially the soil with a high charcoal content binds minerals and increases water retention - like a sponge thus it overcomes the difficulties that conventional farming causes. Thus communities on the Amazon were able to farm the same plots of land for many generations without losing productivity.
Its quite a remarkable method of farming and has been proven to signficantly increase crop yield and reduce the need for fertilisers and more land clearing as the soils hold onto their fertility...
BioChar and Terra Preta is still a field of science in its infancy but if we could mass produce the stuff and dump it into agricultural soils we could potentially solve most of the issues we have with land clearing and soil degradation. If you maintain the productivity of soils you no longer need to clear more forests and your land is more economically viable.
Also rainforests do contain very high quality timbers if a society has the technology to extract them. Most of the clearing of Australia's rainforests in the last 200 years was to extract red cedar and other high quality hardwoods. Tragically though there so much timber that so called 'lesser timbers' were burned - and its almost impossible to get wood from those today.
Both of those ecosystems are full of unknown chemical compounds that could be the next generation of antibiotics and there are applications extend to many fields of science. But it tends not to be the sort of science that has progresses human society - or at least not yet. So its probably not going to help you get to Alpha Centauri...
As far as soil productivity goes the problem with chopping rainforests down for plantations is that the heavy monsoonal rains tend to leach much of the nutrients out of the soil.
Some might be interested to know this but apparently some Amazonian communities figured out that creating charcoal from low intensity fires (often called bio-char) and mixing it into the soil created a new type of soil called Terra Preta.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
Essentially the soil with a high charcoal content binds minerals and increases water retention - like a sponge thus it overcomes the difficulties that conventional farming causes. Thus communities on the Amazon were able to farm the same plots of land for many generations without losing productivity.
Its quite a remarkable method of farming and has been proven to signficantly increase crop yield and reduce the need for fertilisers and more land clearing as the soils hold onto their fertility...
BioChar and Terra Preta is still a field of science in its infancy but if we could mass produce the stuff and dump it into agricultural soils we could potentially solve most of the issues we have with land clearing and soil degradation. If you maintain the productivity of soils you no longer need to clear more forests and your land is more economically viable.
Also rainforests do contain very high quality timbers if a society has the technology to extract them. Most of the clearing of Australia's rainforests in the last 200 years was to extract red cedar and other high quality hardwoods. Tragically though there so much timber that so called 'lesser timbers' were burned - and its almost impossible to get wood from those today.
