WHY ARE RAINFORESTS IMPORTANT?
Rainforests are important to the global ecosystem. Rainforests:
? provide a home to many plants and animals,
? help stabilize the world's climate,
? protect against flood, drought, and erosion,
? are a source for medicines and foods,
? support tribal people, and
? are an interesting place to visit
RAINFORESTS HELP STABILIZE CLIMATE
Rainforests help stabilize the world's climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is believed to contribute to climate change through global warming. Therefore rainforests have an important in addressing global warming.
Rainforests also affect local weather conditions by creating rainfall and moderating temperatures.
RAINFORESTS PROVIDE A HOME FOR PLANTS AND WILDLIFE
Rainforests are home to a large number of the world's plant and animals species, including many endangered species. As forests are cut down, many species are doomed to extinction. Some rainforest species can only survive in their natural habitat. Zoos cannot save all animals.
RAINFORESTS HELP MAINTAIN THE WATER CYCLE
Rainforests help maintain the water cycle. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, "the water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth."
The role of rainforests in the water cycle is to add water to the atmosphere through the process of transpiration (where they release water from their leaves during photosynthesis). This moisture contributes to the formation of rain clouds which release the water back on the rainforest. In the Amazon, 50-80% of moisture remains in the ecosystem's water cycle.
When the forests are cu...
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...bushmeat" or meat sold to city dwellers.
THE ROLE OF POVERTY IN DEFORESTATION
Poverty plays a major role in deforestation. The world's rainforests are found in the poorest areas on the planet. The people who live in and around rainforests rely on these ecosystems for their survival. They collect fruit and wood, hunt wildlife to put meat on the table, and are paid by companies that extract resources from forest lands.
Most rural poor never have the options that we in Western countries take for granted. These people almost never have a choice to go to college or become a doctor, factory worker, or secretary. They must live off the land that surrounds them and make use of whatever resources they can find. Their poverty costs the entire world through the loss of the tropical rainforests and wildlife. Without providing for these people rainforests cannot be saved.
Precipitation is absorbed by vegetation and some of the water is used in the soil that would eventually help plants grow and evapotranspirated (Eves 40-42). This proves that deforestation increases total water runoff. Noah Webster noticed that forests try to maintain the probability of floods and droughts; when the land becomes deforested, that factor is removed (Eves, 42). When deforestation happens, it causes a more probable chance of erosion developing in the soil. At the beginning of the article, John A. Poor, railroad advocate, spoke about the transformation of the Kenduskeag stream by saying, “[W]ith its beautiful cascades from Six Mile Falls to tide water, has shrunk to a comparative rivulet in summer time by the clearing of the forest” (Eves, 38). Moreover, in the source “The Rate and Extent of Deforestation in Watersheds of the Southwestern Amazon Basin,” it explains how the rate of deforestation determines the effects on the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. (Biggs, et al., 31). The changes can either be “transient or chronic depending on the rate of clearing” (Biggs, et al.,
Tropical rainforests are an extremely unique and diverse ecosystem that are located around the earth’s equator. They once covered roughly 7% of the world, but due to human encroachment that has dwindled to just 2%. It is a highly moisture rich environment that typically receives anywhere between 60 and 400 inches of rainfall annually and average humidity ranges from 70 to 90%.
Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and/or cutting down of trees for human benefits such as agriculture, wood exports, etc. Deforestation is the cause of numerous environmental impacts such as habitat loss, flooding and soil erosion. It can also cause climate change, by reducing the amount of rainfall and changing the amount of sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface and increases the risk of forest . Tree growth is important for biodiversity because they absorb carbon dioxide which is a harmful greenhouse gas . However, since deforestation reduces natural carbon sinks, it disrupts the balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air causing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air to increase. This poses a serious threat since carbon dioxide traps the sun’s heat and radiated light inside the earth’s atmosphere. So, with the increase in carbon dioxide more heat is trapped and thus adding to the effects of global warming. Among the many places where deforestation takes place, Amazon seems to be one of the most affected ones. More than 20 percent of it is already gone, and much more of it is severely threatened due to deforestation . It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year .
One example of the hydrologic cycle is of the rainforest in the Republic of Pan...
This rainforest is also a great ‘carbon sink’. It has many photosynthesis plants and this allows the control of carbon dioxide (CO2). The plants take in the CO2 from the atmosphere and return oxygen (O2). b) Logging has impacted this ecosystem. There are trees that are hundreds of years old and their timber is being pushed to be sold for high prices.
The rainforest is rained on constantly and experiences very warm temperatures, allowing for a profusion of animals and plants. The energy that is received is from the sun, converted to chemical energy by plants through photosynthesis. The process of photosynthesis is a source of food for consumers and produces oxygen for organisms. Producers of the Amazon would be plants, flowers, fruits, leaves, plankton, insects, larvae, and spiders. For example, A lot of water is released from the leaves of canopy trees during transpiration which explains the rainfall. The seeds and leaves feed many species of consumers. The trees are extremely tall and trap about 80% of sunlight. Many plants and animals live in or on the marsh grass surface because its roots and stalks protect them.
They provide a habitat for plants and animals. Tropical rainforests took between 60 to 100 million years to evolve and are believed to be the most complex and the oldest ecosystem on the earth, containing over 30 million species of plants and animals. That is half the world’s species and 2/3 of its plant species. Most tropical rainforest grown in warm and steamy environments. One hectare of lowland may have around 100 trees with up to 300 species. If we compare this to UK, where the UK forests have 5-10 species per hectare. That’s 30 to 60 times less species in UK than a hectare of
The Human Impact on Rainforests Human Impact on Rainforest is it a necessity? Rainforest are the beautiful gift of Mother Nature. It consists of the most magnificent species and plants in the world. 4.2% of the world’s animals live in the rainforest. This statistic it self shows how bad it would be to destroy such essential part of the worlds biodiversity.
...later time. Though it is simply impossible to know what the ultimate effects will be on our long term survival as a species, it is important to bear in mind that, once a species has been eliminated through extinction, it cannot be brought back. So, for the overall health of our rainforests, their biodiversity, and the limitless potential contained therein, it is crucial for us, as humans, to make as honest an effort as possible at their preservation.
Simply speaking, rainforests are basically the foundation of the earth. The most important role that rainforests play is ‘the lungs of the earth’. This is extremely vital to the earth’s survival as the trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide which they use to help grow and let out oxygen which we need to live. This system is known as the carbon-oxygen cycle and with numbers of rainforests declining, it is highly threatened. The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon, alone is known to produce half of the world’s oxygen. A break down in the carbon-oxygen cycle means that we will not only have less oxygen, but an increase in carbon dioxide which eventually leads to global warming. This occurs as carbon dioxide traps heat which actually keeps the earth warm, with the right amount of carbon dioxide that is. This is called the greenhouse effect and occurs naturally however due to decreasing number of trees, there is more carbon dioxide than needed which traps extra heat making the earth hotter than needed, this is known as global warming which also causes a rise in sea level.
Tropical rainforests have many species of plants and animals. They are very interesting and many scientists today study it. Rainforests are an important part of our environment and it is important for us to protect it. That’s why we have to stop global warming.
They also purify the air we breathe and water that we need to survive. Deforestation by humans is causing these functions to be lessened and damaging the atmosphere even further. (www.climateandweather.net) Deforestation is one of the major factors contributing to the greenhouse effect and desertification
Scientists themselves are just beginning to understand the serious problems caused by deforestation. Deforestation occurs all over the world by all types of people. Peasant farmers even add to the problem because in most tropical countries the farmers are very poor only making between eight hundred and fifty four hundred dollars annually (NASA Facts). Therefore, they do not have enough money to buy what they need to live therefore they must farm to raise crops for food and to sell. In these poor countries the majority of people are peasant farmers this farming adds up to a great deal of deforestation. These farmers chop down a small area of trees for there plot to farm on and burn the tree trunks (NASA Facts). The combined number of farmers maintaining this process creates a great deal of clearing and burning of the land they need to cultivate, which results in land being treeless. Commercial logging is also another common form of deforestation. This commercial logging wipes out massive amounts of land sometimes deforesting several miles at...
Although poverty is often cited as the underlying cause of tropical deforestation, analyses of multiple scientific studies indicate that that explanation is an oversimplification. Poverty does drive people to migrate to forest frontiers, where they engage in slash and burn forest clearing for subsistence. But rarely does one factor alone bear the sole responsibility for tropical deforestation.
The social and moral implications of diminishing rainforest biodiversity are great. From a human welfare perspective, the livelihoods of tens of millions of indigenous peoples depend on the forests, but thousands are being pushed out of their homes because they lack the shelter and support that the forest once gave them (Salim 3). These groups have "developed knowledge and cultures in accordance with their environment through thousands of years, and even physically they are adapted to the life in the forest" (Nyborg). For many of the people living in these areas, the forest is the only resource they have providing them with food, shelter and cultural ties. With the invasion and destruction of their homeland, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.