On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle. The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon\u2019s blood tree \u2014 a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change. <\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing the trees die, it\u2019s like losing one of your babies,\u201d said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species. <\/p>\n
Known for their mushroom-shaped canopies and the blood-red sap that courses through their wood, the trees once stood in great numbers. But increasingly severe cyclones, grazing by invasive goats, and persistent turmoil in Yemen \u2014 which is one of the world\u2019s poorest countries and beset by a decade-long civil war \u2014 have pushed the species, and the unique ecosystem it supports, toward collapse. <\/p>\n
Often compared to the Galapagos Islands, Socotra floats in splendid isolation some 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the Horn of Africa. Its biological riches \u2014 including 825 plant species, of which more than a third exist nowhere else on Earth \u2014 have earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. Among them are bottle trees, whose swollen trunks jut from rock like sculptures, and frankincense, their gnarled limbs twisting skywards. <\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the dragon\u2019s blood tree that has long captured imaginations, its otherworldly form seeming to belong more to the pages of Dr. Seuss than to any terrestrial forest. The island receives about 5,000 tourists annually, many drawn by the surreal sight of the dragon\u2019s blood forests. <\/p>\n
Visitors are required to hire local guides and stay in campsites run by Socotran families to ensure tourist dollars are distributed locally. If the trees were to disappear, the industry that sustains many islanders could vanish with them. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith the income we receive from tourism, we live better than those on the mainland,\u201d said Mubarak Kopi, Socotra\u2019s head of tourism. <\/p>\n
But the tree is more than a botanical curiosity: It\u2019s a pillar of Socotra\u2019s ecosystem. The umbrella-like canopies capture fog and rain, which they channel into the soil below, allowing neighboring plants to thrive in the arid climate. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you lose the trees, you lose everything \u2014 the soil, the water, the entire ecosystem,\u201d said Kay Van Damme, a Belgian conservation biologist who has worked on Socotra since 1999. <\/p>\n
Without intervention, scientists like Van Damme warn these trees could disappear within a few centuries \u2014 and with them many other species. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve succeeded, as humans, to destroy huge amounts of nature on most of the world\u2019s islands,\u201d he said. \u201cSocotra is a place where we can actually really do something. But if we don\u2019t, this one is on us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Across the rugged expanse of Socotra\u2019s Firmihin plateau, the largest remaining dragon\u2019s blood forest unfolds against the backdrop of jagged mountains. Thousands of wide canopies balance atop slender trunks. Socotra starlings dart among the dense crowns while Egyptian vultures bank against the relentless gusts. Below, goats weave through the rocky undergrowth. <\/p>\n
The frequency of severe cyclones has increased dramatically across the Arabian Sea in recent decades, according to a 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change, and Socotra\u2019s dragon\u2019s blood trees are paying the price. <\/p>\n
In 2015, a devastating one-two punch of cyclones \u2014 unprecedented in their intensity \u2014 tore across the island. Centuries-old specimens, some over 500 years old, which had weathered countless previous storms, were uprooted by the thousands. The destruction continued in 2018 with yet another cyclone. <\/p>\n
As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so too will the intensity of the storms, warned Hiroyuki Murakami, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cClimate models all over the world robustly project more favorable conditions for tropical cyclones.\u201d <\/p>\n