In Harstad Norway, the effects of global warming are being felt already. The reindeers are vulnerable when the winter snows do not fall. The snow is like a soft winter bed for reindeers. The lack of snow makes it hard for reindeer to feed on the lichen as the plants are covered in sharp ice, which then cuts their soft muzzles. Plants are covered in the sharp ice instead of soft snow as the area is being warmed up due to more carbon dioxide in the air.
Deforestation is the permanent destruction of indigenous forests/woodlands. Between 1990 and 1995, there was 1.2 million acres of forest destroyed for the uses of building homes, commercial logging and farming. The destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic forest is devastating as there is only about 7% left due to deforestation. Most of the forest was destroyed by farmers so they could plant and grow sugar, coffee and other crops and also for growing cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Five hundred years ago, the Atlantic Forest of Brazil covered approximately 330 million acres but today more than 92% of this forest has been cleared. With this rapid shrinking rate, animals are forced to change their patterns of living, as well as their patterns of hunting enabling them to survive. Many animals are not able to adapt to these rapid changes and they are dying off at an incredible rate. Approximately one hundred species per day are going extinct due to deforestation. These animals need trees/vegetation to survive. Despite its diminished state, the Atlantic Forest harbors around 2,200 species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians – 5% of the vertebrates on Earth. This includes nearly 200 bird species found nowhere else, and 60% of all of Brazil’s threatened animal species call this forest home. Some of the Forest’s species include the golden lion tamarin, wooly spider monkey, red-tailed parrot, and maned three-toed sloth. The Forest is also home to around 20,000 species of plants, representing 8% of the Earth’s plants. In fact, in the 1990s researchers from the New York Botanical Garden counted 458 tree species in 2.5 acres – more than double the number of tree species in the entire U.S. eastern seaboard. New species of flora and fauna continue to be discovered. The forest structure contains multiple plants that help with cures for diseases. There is a diversity of ferns, mosses and air plants (plants that attach to other plants), including lianas, orchids and bromeliads.
As the forests are burnt or left to rot more carbon dioxide is released, polluting the air further. Forests act as a major carbon store because carbon dioxide is taken from the atmosphere and used to produce the proteins, carbohydrates and fats to make up the tree. They take carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil, and use the energy from sunlight to convert into food and store as starch then convert it to glucose. Respiration then takes place and releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Trees help with the delay of the greenhouse effect as they absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis. As vast amounts of carbon dioxide are being produced, less is used by trees and the increase in carbon dioxide traps too much heat which in turn causes temperature to rise so can lead to global warming. The water cycle is also affected as the trees draw water up through their roots and release it back into the atmosphere through transpiration. Transpiration is the evaporation of water into the atmosphere from the leaves and stems of plants. Plants absorb soil water through their roots and pump the water up to deliver nutrients to their leaves. With removal of the forest, regions cannot hold as much water so would become a drier climate and lead to the land becoming unstable. The soil is washed of essential nutrients and leads to soil erosion. The soil dries and cracks under the sun’s heat and nitrogen can be lost, further reducing the fertility of the soil. Nitrogen is needed to make proteins which trees need. Nitrogen gas cannot be used by plants and is converted to nitrates. Nitrifying bacteria in the roots of plants convert ammonia from the decayed remains and waste of animals and plants into nitrates and converts this into proteins.
There is no easy solution as deforestation is caused by many things. One option is decreasing the amount of products that are harvested from the rainforests. This could be done by enforcing programs that used recycling, the need for disposable products wouldn’t be there so nobody would need to cut the trees down. The less packaging on products would help. Another way would be to plant more trees but the old forests would still be lost and they’re not the same as new ones. The use of unleaded petrol and sharing of cars would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released back into the atmosphere as well. Forests were put on Earth for a reason, as they help to maintain a balance between all of nature’s elements and this is being put at risk.
BOOKS:
Collins,(2005)GCSEBiology.London:Jackie Clegg and Mike Smith
Letts,(2001)GCSEBiology.London:Hannah Kingston
Roberts, M.B.V.(1986)Biology for Life.2nd ed. China: Thomas Nelson
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