The Role of Human Activity in Modifying Characteristics of a Biome
A biome is a large scale or global ecosystem where biotic and abiotic
elements interact with eachother producing a stable system that is in
equilibrium. An example of this is the hot, wet equatorial climate
where tropical rainforest is the dominant vegetation. Here the biotic
elements such as the trees and animals for example sloths interact
with the abiotic elements such as the poor soils and hot climate. The
rainforest is millions of years old and remained undisrupted and in
equilibrium for much of this time. However, as people exploit the
rainforests resources, in particular its valuable trees, the
equilibrium is changing. With trees being cut down at a rate of 40
hectares per minute how can it not?
Why are they needed?
Tropical rainforests cover over 7% of the earth's surface and play an
important part in maintaining environmental and climatic stability.
They help reduce soil erosion, prevent flooding and as the trees hold
the soil together they stop a loss of nutrients from the soil. Due to
the large percentage of land they cover they have a large influence on
regional and global weather patterns as they have control of the
moisture flow through the system. They are a major economic resource
with wood used for construction and raw materials for manufactured
products. Only 6% of the wood taken is exported yet it is worth £8
billion per year. The rainforests are also an important source of
genetic diversity with over 50% of the earth's species in the tropics.
On the Malaysian peninsula alone there are 7900 species of flowering
plant. In Britain, an area twice the size, there are just 1430.
Causes
Tropical rainforests are mainly in developing countries such as Brazil
and Indonesia. The reasons are both political and socio-economic. The
two governments of these countries both have transmigration policies.
In Brazil in the 1970's the people were encouraged to make use of the
new highways and translocate from the northern and eastern states into
The Brazilian Rainforest is one of the most unique, vast, and diverse regions of the world. To get a general idea of the diversity of the Rainforest, it makes up a total of one-third of the world forests (more than four million square kilometers), it contains half of the total number of named species in the world (eighty-thousand plant species, 1,500 fish species, and one-forth of the 8,600 bird species), and is the world largest holder of genes (Library 138-139). To say the least, the Brazilian Rainforest is one of the most important natural resources we, as humans, know. It would seem that this knowledge, alone, would also make the Brazilian Rainforest one of the most protected land areas on Earth as well. However, the situation is quite the opposite. The Brazilian Rainforest has been greatly degraded by deforestation since the 1960 , which has led to numerous negative effects both environmentally and socially. This paper introduces the events that opened the door to deforestation, the most immediate causes and effects of deforestation in the Brazilian Rainforest, and my two-part solution to the problem of deforestation.
The Brazos River emerges at the convergence of Double Mountain Fork and Salt Fork near the east boundary of Stonewall County. It runs 840 miles through Texas to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico (The Official Website of the State of Texas, n.d). It is the longest river in Texas, and it has the greatest discharge. There are several watersheds along its course as shown on the map above. I am going to deal with the Bosque River Watershed.
Tropical rain forests and temperate forests are two different types of forests. They differ in density, diversity of species, regions, altitudes and their usefulness to humans. This usefulness is referred to as values. The values obtained from forests are aesthetics, scientific and educational purposes. In addition forests have the ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide released into the air from man’s endeavours. This CO2 contributes to the sudden increase in global warming. The total value of a forest ecosystem is the combined value of each individual species living within that habitat.
Farmers are a large problem for the tropical rain forests in South America. When farmers need more land, they start to chop trees down in the rain forest to make more space for farming. Rainforests once covered more than 14 percent of the earth. Sadly, rainforests now cover about 6 percent of the earth, which leads to the destruction of various animals’ habitats.
No matter where a person lives, even if it is not near a rain forest, the complete destruction of rain forests will affect living conditions. For years rain forests have provided countries around the word with valuable resources, minerals, lumber, and energy. In Brazil alone the rain forests contains 45% of Brazil’s hydroelectric power. The minerals found in the rain forests of Brazil are estimated to value 1.6 trillion dollars, while the lumber that the rain forests can provide total 1.7 trillion dollars (“In the Forest” 1). Nutrients from decomposing organisms can be found throughout rain forests, including in soil and in trees. To continue destroying forests also destroys the important materials that they are providing to humans.
One reason that people should stop cutting down the rainforest is because many plants and animals are being harmed and losing their homes. The Amazon is home to many more than half of the world’s specimen of plants and animals. Over 70% of the rainforest’s animals and plants live on the subcanopy, or the second highest level of the trees. When you destroy even one tree, many plants and animals, either die or have to find new homes. Many of these tropical plants also have medicinal values such as curing malaria. Sadly, according to Michael Greenwell, the deforestation of the Amazon has led to 26 species of plants and animals and 644 species to be on the brink of endangerment. According to UNEP, about 857,666 square kilometers of land has been lost in one year. The area lost is approximately the size of Venezuela. To keep cutting down trees in the rainforest would be dooming 38 species to extinction. It may seem that the Amazon is vast in recourses and cutting down one tree will not harm much, but if we ...
Fish have more known species than any other vertebrate and their habitats range from the smallest freshwater streams to the deepest parts of the seafloor. They grow from a fraction of an inch to 50 feet and live anywhere from the arctic waters to the tropics. Fish skeletons can either be made of nothing but cartilage or nothing but bone. They can look very awkward or very majestic.
In recent decades, the pace of change has accelerated due to an increase in human population has negatively impacted the rainforest. The
When asked to consider the term ecology I have to look at what that word is defined as being. The dictionary defines it as, “The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings” (online dictionary, 2013). This is a very short definition for something that is comprised of so much once you start thinking about how many things affect an organisms physical surroundings. For this, I will be focusing on energy and chemical cycles, community structure, biodiversity and succession, and how all of these items are a part of ecology.
This is alarming since recent data indicates these enormous forests are land-dwelling carbon absorbers that could help to slow worldwide climate alteration. The United Nations ' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates “eighteen million acres of forests have been destroyed worldwide;” and NASA forecasts “that if current deforestation rates are not reduced, rainforests could become entirely eradicated in a century.” The nations with substantial deforestation are Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Africa (The Democratic Republic of Congo included), and remote areas of Eastern Europe. Indonesia, the country with the greatest deforestation within the last century, has lost approximately forty million acres of indigenous
Firstly, one major similarity in deforestation between Brazil and Indonesia is the amount and rate of the forest devastation. In Indonesia, approximately 50 percent of Sumatra’s forests have massively been destroyed during the period of 1985 to 2008, which have entirely transformed the outlook of Sumatra Island (Watts, 2013). According to Butler (2013), almost 158,000 square kilometers of Indonesia’s forest were diminished by the end 2012. Moreover, the rate of deforestation in Indonesia has continuously increased over the next few decades. Similarly, the amount of forest loss in Brazil was also considered to be the second highest from the year 2000 to 2012, which was approximately 361,000 square kilometers (Butler, 2013). The deforestation rate in Brazil has risen up over 28 percent from the period of August 2012 to July 2013, especially in some states near the Amazon regions that have the total amount of deforestation around 5,843 square ki...
Rainforests once covered 14% of the worlds land surface, however now it only covers a mere 6%. It is estimated that all rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Trees are becoming more needed and used everyday. We need them cut down for many reasons such as paper and timber, while also needing them ‘untouched’ for other reasons like oxygen, we have to ask ourselves, which is more important? At the current rate, most of the rainforests are being cut down for resources like paper and timber, but less importance is being placed on main resources like oxygen.
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
Halting the destruction of the rainforests has been identified by the World Wildlife Organisation as one of the most urgent and yet cost effective ways to keep the world out of danger from runaway climate change. They also report forest loss contributes to over 20 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. It is the trees that absorb greenhouse gases and carbon emissions, therefore at the very least the more we protect the rainforests the less contribution to global warming. xxxxx has stated "Despite conservation efforts, global deforestation continues at an alarming rate - 13 million hectares a year, or 36 football fields a minute" (xxxxxxxx) Protecting these forests from further destruction and finding solutions is critical . Not everyone agrees about the main causes, some evidence suggests it is the private landholders who hold significant sway while others believe it is purely market forces that are the main concern. This essay therefore aims to cover this issue by first evaluating causes and follows with a look at proposed solutions. Finally the conclusions are drawn from the evidence to offer a practical direction to maximise forest preservation.
Commercial logging for lumber or fuel supplies is another factor. The cutting down of trees for a profit is also depleting our forests. Another travesty of commercial logging is the damage caused to other trees that surround or are in the path of the trees being harvested. Logging also increases the destruction to forests in the event of fire as outline in the article entitled “Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: History, Rates and Consequences” written by Philip M. Fearnside, “Logging greatly increase the susceptibility of forest to fire. Once fire enters it kills trees and increase...