And they also play a role in mitigating the impacts of climate change through carbon capture storage, acting as a buffer against natural disasters and helping to maintain microclimatic or climatic stability.

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In the bubble era, with unrealised gains on securities portfolios acting as a buffer, and eager bankers a mere phone call away, companies had few incentives to keep more than minimal financial accounts.

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"If extreme droughts like these become more frequent, the days of the Amazon rainforest acting as a natural buffer to man-made carbon emissions may be numbered, " forest ecologist Simon Lewis, from University College London, has said.

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