Empty Forest Readford (1992) says, “We must not let a forest full of trees fool us into believing all is well” (p. 421). Forests are an ecosystem composed by flora and fauna in a perfect and natural balance of life and death. That balance can be affected by anthropological interference, mostly by swidden agriculture, burning, and hunting. These three interferences has one thing in common: they exterminate animals. As a result, they turn a majestic forest into an empty forest. There is many ways to inspect if a forest is being conserved or not by using satellites view and images recorded from planes. However, both of them give a superficial idea about the area of the forest; and if this area was deforested or not. Those …show more content…
Therefore, empty forests, unlike forests without anthropological interference, have poor biodiversity. In order to understand why fauna affects flora people need to know that some species of the flora, usually large trees, are pollinated by animals. Herrera and Pellmyr (2002) explain, "The lack of mobility in plants creates a physical obstacle in the dispersal of their genes. In a majority of all plants, this obstacle has been alleviated through the formation of mutualisms with animals that transport pollen grains between stigmas" (p. 157). So in empty forests, where fauna is compromised by defaunation, pollination of large plants is obstructed. However, in the ideal forest, without human interference, the pollination occurs normally. Animals would visit the plants with different purposes; some of them to eat parts of the flower; others just because they usually visit that tree; as they do that the pollen gets stuck in the body of the animal. As a result, trees will be able to reproduce and turn flowers into fruit. In contrast, what happens in empty forests is frightening. Lack of animal diversity in empty forests leads to lack of pollination; as …show more content…
Dispersion is a process that happens after the pollination of a flower; and it generates a fruit; animals usually eat those fruits, and they leave the seeds on the forest floor. In addition, sometimes the seed goes through the intestinal tract, what makes the seed even more propitious to sewing. Wunderle Jr. (1997) writes, "In many plant communities, seed dispersal by animals is often an important form of dissemination of propagules and in some sites over half the tree species have seeds dispersed by animals rather than wind, water, or other forms of dispersal. For example, in some neotropical forests, more than 66% of the canopy tree species have seeds which are dispersed by animals" (p. 224). Respectively, this is what takes place in an untouched forests. They have a complete cycle: after reproduction and formation of fruits, the seeds would be sowed, and the process of growth would start with germination. However, what happens in empty forests is that there are no animals to
Reproduction and passing on genetic and behavioral traits to an offspring is a common fundamental to all the species on this planet. When studying forest ecology, it is crucial to study the proportion of individuals surviving at each stage of their growth as the lives and mortality experienced in a species population describes a characteristic of the species in question. In the case of American beech and sugar maple, their attempt to produce seeds is analogous to entering lottery, where every seedling has a potential chance of becoming a canopy but only some will survive and reach the canopy size; thus, becoming the fit ‘winners’. Our information shows that together, based on size class distribution, both the species display a ‘winner takes all’ pattern, which supports our hypothesis. The results showed a greater count for seedlings and short saplings than for tall saplings, sub-canopies and canopies. This is evident for a Type III survivorship curve. In Type III curve all individuals initially having a very low chance of survival. However, once the individuals pass their threshold age and survive, they live an advanced age. Only some individuals out the mast seeding production mature to become fully fit canopy trees. On the other hand, our hypothesis of canopy trees representing the bulk of the biomass was supported as the basal areas decreased going from growth stages of canopy to seedlings. This is evidence that once the individuals survive the bottleneck where there is high mortality of young individuals (seedlings), who are then considered as ‘losers’, will allow for the other larger size class individuals to flourish. Here, having considerable amount of dbh (diameter at breast height) accounts for greater surfac...
Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter (drug war facts, Page 1).
...ing", many habitats are preserved and even if a tree is cut, there are others in the area that are available for animals to inhabit.
technology. When they wanted to plant or to crush the seeds that they have gathered they used a
...le would be more than that of American beech because sugar maple produce more seeds than American beech. Furthermore, we study whether the two species co-exist via reciprocal replacement, habitat preference or merely by chance. We believe that habitat preference may be the mechanism of coexistence here and therefore we hypothesize that there will be more American beech tree neighbors as they may represent the most biomass as per our third hypothesis. Thereafter, root sprouting is effective in American beech to give them a greater horizontal growth than sugar maple. Hence, we hypothesize that sugar maple canopies will be less asymmetrical than American beech. Finally, because a nearby canopy may restrict a tree canopy growth in the same direction, we hypothesize that a tree will grow its respective canopy away from its neighboring canopy to receive maximum sunlight.
FAO: State of the World's Forests. Rome: Food and Agriculture Office of the United Nations; 2007. Print.
One of the most predominate ecosystems is the forest community. Covering about one-fourth of the land area on Earth, forests consist mainly of trees and other woody vegetation, growing closely together. The trees can be large and densely packed, as they are in the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, or they can be relatively small and sparsely scattered, as they are in the dry tropical forests of sub-Saharan Africa. Forests are complex ecosystems that also include “soils and decaying organic matter, fungi and bacteria, herbs and shrubs, vines and lichens, ferns and mosses, insects and spiders, reptiles and amphibians, birds and mammals, and many other organisms” (Audesirk, 2003). All of these components constitute an intricate web with many biological interconnections. A bird may depend on the upper branches of a tree for nesting, while the tree may depend on the fungi surrounding its roots to obtain water and nutrients. A forest performs a number of vital environmental services, such as cleansing the air, moderating the climate, filtering water, cycling nutrients, providing a habitat for animals and provides humans with recreation and beautiful scenery. Resources from the forest supply raw materials, such as lumber, paper products, greenery and pharmaceuticals. Some of the developing issues today concerning forests are fires and what we as a society can do to restore the natural ecosystems within the forests around our world. Many aspects are to be considered when looking at the ecology and bioremediation of forests such as, human activities, wildlife, endangerment and environmental changes. This paper will discuss the effect wildfires have on the forest ecosystem.
a) The Daintree rainforest at Cape Tribulation, in far north Queensland is diverse in many ways. It holds 12 of the 19 primitive plant families in the world (Cairns Today, 2007). The forest covers an area of 1100 square kilometres and is approximately eighty kilometres wide. This dense and luxuriant rainforest has the greatest diversity than any other in Australia and many in the world. The Daintree is also the home of rare and threatened of being extinct plant and animal species. The importance of this ecosystem is the very high. This ecosystem contributes to the overall health of this plant in many ways. The diversity contributes in the breakdown of pollution and helps to control the climate to name a few. This rainforest also is a great ‘carbon sink’. It has many photosynthesising plants and this allows the control of carbon dioxide (CO2). The plants take in the CO2 from the atmosphere and return oxygen (O2)
Deforestation is fast becoming one of the world’s worst environmental/geographical occurring disasters known to mankind, and is due to humankind’s greed, ignorance and carelessness when considering the future of our environment.
Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Forests make up a large percentage of the globe. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath, determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. The wood from the forests are used everyday form many useful resources. Moreover, thinning the forests increases the amount of available light, nutrients and water for the remaining trees. Deforestation (forest thinning) is one of the most critical issues of environmental problems that are occurring today.
of species due to a variety of causes. Included is out competition, depletion of resources
Lindsey, Rebecca. "Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles." Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles. NASA, 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 01 Mar. 2014. .
Forests are vital for life and have many important functions. They are home to millions of species and protect soil from erosion. Along with this they produce oxygen which is vital for human life, store carbon dioxide and help control climate. They also provide humans with shelter, food and medicines vital for life.
For pollination necessary to set fruit, normal seed types must be interpolated with seedless melons. The pollinator should be distinct from the seedless cultivar in color, shape or type so that the seedless and seeded melons in the patch can be separated at harvest. Because seedless types do not put energy into seed production, the flesh is often sweeter than normal types and the vines are noticeably more vigorous as the season progresses.
The biosphere is sufficiently larger than anyone could ever imagine. It could possibly have up to thirty million different types animals, plants, fungi, and all other organisms. Considering the ocean covers seventy percent of Earth and all of it’s matter, scientists and oceanographers have only explored and mapped five percent of it. This amazing fact shows us, humans, how little we all know about the biosphere. The life forms of the biosphere of Earth vary from animals, plants, fungi, and various others. Out of the possible thirty million different species of life forms, scientists have only discovered a small portion of over one million of them. Every single one of these species need trees...