For consumers, it makes sense to examine the products and meats you buy, looking for sustainably produced sources when you can. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as much as half of the worlds topsoil has been lost as a consequence of the nearly 4 million square miles of forest that have been lost since the beginning of the 20th century. All Rights Reserved. If tropical deforestation were a country, according to the World Resources Institute, it would rank third in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, behind China and the U.S. Can Cell Phones Help Save Rain Forests? Wildlife habitat has declined and even disappeared during the past 100 years as natural Deforestations effects reach far beyond the people and animals where trees are cut. Healthy forests act as extremely valuable carbon sinks, with the Amazon rainforest being one of the worlds most important ones. With wild habitats destroyed and human life ever expanding, the line between animal and human areas blurs, opening the door to zoonotic diseases. The greatest deforestation is occurring in the tropics, where a wide variety of forests exists. Habitat destruction is the issue most often cited for the problems now facing Florida wildlife. , Ice. A November 2022 study showed that when bats struggle to find suitable habitat, they travel closer to human communities where diseases are more likely to spillover. Changing temperatures can alter which organisms can survive in an ecosystem. Forests around the world are home to more than, 80% of all terrestrial animal, plant, and insect species. Heres why each season begins twice. This can be done on an individual level, for example by reducing meat consumption, going paperless and recycling products as much as possible, opting for natural products that do not contain ingredients such as palm oil and supporting organisations and sustainable companies that are committed to reducing this dangerous practice. But we can still save our forests. WebDeforestation affects the world in a negative way, with the most dramatic impact being the loss of habitat for millions of species. Not according to biology or history. As trees are cut down and burnt, the carbon they contain is released into the atmosphere. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. With many Florida The most significant effect of forest degradation is loss of habitat leading to species loss. WebHabitat destruction is the issue most often cited for the problems now facing Florida wildlife. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. The loss of trees and other vegetation can cause climate change, desertification, soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and a host of problems for indigenous people. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. By 1999, 265 people had developed a severe brain inflammation, and 105 had died. Find out the causes, effects, and solutions. FloridaStock Habitat Loss Featured Image. Its pretty well established that deforestation can be a strong driver of infectious disease transmission, says Andy MacDonald, a disease ecologist at the Earth Research Institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. WebHere is a detailed discussion of how deforestation affects climate change, animals and humans. Logging operations, which provide the worlds wood and paper products, also fell countless trees each year. In a 2015 study, researchers at Ecohealth Alliance, a New York-based non-profit that tracks infectious diseases globally, and others found that nearly one in three outbreaks of new and emerging disease[s] are linked to land-use change like deforestation, the organizations president Peter Daszak tweeted earlier this year. Many replanting and reforestation efforts are led and funded by the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations. Identify Priority Places: A Practitioner's Guide, Florida Vegetation 2003 and Land Use Change Between 1985-89 and 2003. It has been shown that the deforestation of the Amazon contributes to a decline in pasture productivity of about 39% as well as a drop of soy yields of nearly 25% in over half of the Amazon region and of a staggering 60% in a third of the area. Clearing patches of forest appears to create ideal habitat along forest edges for the mosquito Anopheles darlingithe most important transmitter of malaria in the Amazonto breed. In heavily deforested areas, soil erosion and nutrient runoff are common after a rainfall. , Loss of Topsoil. Knowing how deforestation affect the environment more than one way and its catastrophic effects on the planet, it is crucial that people around the world take action to mitigate its impact. Find out the causes, effects, and solutions. Boost this article Such processes arent limited to tropical diseases. Along with Indigenous tribes, animals are some of the biggest victims of deforestation. It's a site that collects all the most frequently asked questions and answers, so you don't have to spend hours on searching anywhere else. Since the 1870s the regions forest cover has increased, though most of the trees are relatively young. He has previously written for YoDerm, a dermatology-related start-up as a copywriter writing on various acne-related topics, drawing from his experience in biology and research. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. A major contributor to tropical deforestation is the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture, or swidden agriculture (see also shifting agriculture). To answer the question of how deforestation affects the environment, it is important to look at why humans need forests in the first place. This led to the die-off of Image by Global Forest Watch. It becomes harder to grow crops on eroded soils and local flora and fauna typically suffer. Few places exist in eastern North America that retain stands of uncut old-growth forests. Nonprofit groups such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Rainforest Alliance certify products they consider sustainable, while the World Wildlife Fund has a palm oil scorecard for consumer brands. Soil erosion is a gradual process that occurs when the impact of water or wind detaches and removes soil particles, causing the soil to deteriorate. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Just four commoditiesbeef, soy, palm oil, and wood productsdrive the majority of global deforestation. EarthTalk is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). , Wind. At first pass, there seems little amiss in the idyll of Florida Bay. Sign in with your username (email address) and password. For instance, forests perform important functions like: regulating weather conditions. This area, just last year smelled like death. The current rate of rainforest-loss generated emissions is nearly 25% higher than those generated in the European Union and just slightly below US levels. Deforestation is the clearing of forests to obtain lumber and provide space for either agricultural zones or urban development. It was the first known emergence of Nipah virus in people, which has since caused a string of recurrent outbreaks across Southeast Asia. Another important role of trees is to regulate the temperature of forests and maintain it constant. Not long after developers started draining the wetlands for agriculture and paved it over for roads and houses, the effects started rippling through the system. However, the bacterium is also found in the white-footed mouse, which happens to thrive in forests fragmented by human settlements, MacDonald says. The minerals in the water are almost like sandpaper on the rock, slowly, slowly scrubbing it away. Inversely, when bats native habitats were left intact, they stayed away from humans. Explore How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? Deforestation also increases the risk of uncontrollable wildfires because of humans burning vegetation. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. With the loss of trees and entire forests, homelands are also being destroyed in the process. Theyre also afraid that the next serious pandemic could emerge from our worlds forests. Studies show that 15,3 billion trees are chopped down every year and over the past 12,000 years, nearly 50% of the worlds trees have been purposefully cleared by humans. All told, deforestation causes a triple-whammy of global warming: We lose a crucial ally in keeping excess carbon out of the atmosphere (and in slowing global warming), Even more emissions are created when felled trees release the carbon theyd been storing, and rot or burn on the forest floor, and Any realistic plan to reduce global warming pollution sufficientlyand in timeto avoid dangerous consequences must rely in part on preserving tropical forests, reports EDF. By most accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the worlds roads. deforestation, the clearing or thinning of forests by humans. Statistics show that deforestation in the tropics reduces precipitation over the Amazon by around 10%, or 138 millimeter, every year. Between 2003 and 2015, on average, they estimated that a 10 percent yearly increase in forest loss led to a 3 percent rise in malaria cases. Spillovers of infectious diseases to people is more likely to occur in the tropics because overall wildlife and pathogen diversity is higher, he adds. Those were the [places] that Anopheles darlingi really enjoyed being, Vittor recalls. Only about 1 million square km (390,000 square miles) of cropland are in areas that would have been cool boreal forests, as in Scandinavia and northern Canada. Learn more about deforestation.). This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals. The scientific consensus on deforestation is that it intensifies climate change at a dramatic rate. How does deforestation effect Florida? Plants create oxygen and absorb greenhouse gases. While some of them move into areas occupied by other tribes, straining the lands resources, others are forced to relocate to urban settings and completely change their way of living. Exacerbating global warming isnt the only negative impact of tropical deforestation. Figure 1: Tropical primary forest loss between 2002 and 2020. Human population and development activities affect the rate of deforestation in biodiversity hotspots. As their houses are destroyed and resources compromised, these tribes are forced to migrate elsewhere and find other ways to sustain themselves. It feels like more has happened in the past few months than in the past 25 years, said Eric Eikenberg, the chief executive of the Everglades Foundation. But its hard to convince the poor residents of the Amazon basin and other tropical regions of the world to stop cutting down trees when the forests are still worth more dead than alive. These diseases infect not only birds and vertebrates found in these ecosystems, but also any humans that are exposed to these insects, either in the wild or in nearby urban areas. In a complex analysis of satellite and health data published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, MacDonald and Stanford Universitys Erin Mordecai reported a significant impact of deforestation across the Amazon basin on malaria transmission, in line with some previous research. What are the reasons behind deforestation? The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as much as, half of the worlds topsoil has been lost. These uncontacted tribes live by the rules of nature but are becoming increasingly vulnerable to deforestation, which has forced many of them to migrate. So how does deforestation affect the environment and what threats does it pose to living species? A severe slump in rainfall in 2015 meant salinity levels rocketed in the bay, with the water becoming twice as salty in the ocean. Thanks for reading Scientific American. We are completely changing the structure of the forest, notes Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio, a disease ecologist at Ecohealth Alliance. All rights reserved. Deforestation represents one of the largest issues in global land use. Deforestation also increases the risk of uncontrollable wildfires because of humans burning vegetation. All of these factors disrupt a river ecosystem because the species that live in the stream have adapted to conditions before the deforestation and may be negatively impacted by the sudden changes. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. Less certain are the humid tropical forests and some drier tropical woodlands that have been cleared for grazing. Water. The 'extreme cruelty' around the global trade in frog legs, What does cancer smell like? Brazil is among the countries embracing REDD among other efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Dead fish in Florida following the 2018 toxic red tide. WebIn 2010, United States had 252Mha of natural forest, extending over 29% of its land area. Impact of Deforestation - Species Loss, Extinction and Disease A fully functioning forest has a great capacity to regenerate. Since 1990, the world has lost more than 420 million hectares or about a billion acres of forest, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsmainly in Africa and South America. The Everglades faces the threat of salty inundation on all sides, with the sea level at its edge rising by about 5in since 2001. Roads serve as barriers, confining many species of wildlife within restricted areas. DeSantis backed the plan and recently penned a letter to Trump, alongside Florida senators Scott and Marco Rubio, to ask for funding. With the ongoing burning of the Amazon, these results dont bode well; The latest data, issued this week, reveals an area 12 times the size of New York City has been destroyed so far this year. Even when the forest is not entirely cleared, what remains is often a patchwork of forests and fields or, in the event of more intensive deforestation, islands of forest surrounded by a sea of deforested areas. Statistics show that deforestation in the tropics, reduces precipitation over the Amazon by around 10%, , or 138 millimeter, every year. Malariawhich kills over a million annually due to infection by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by mosquitoeshas long been suspected of going Some of this replanting is done to replenish logging areas for future exploitation, and some replanting is done as a form of ecological restoration, with the reforested areas made into protected land. By most accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the worlds roads. One possible indirect consequence of deforestation is the spread of diseases, including those originating from birds, such as avian flu. And consumers can help stop it. In humans, the virus causes hemorrhagic feverthe same kind of illness triggered by Ebola virusand in Liberia killed 36 percent of infected people. Obviously, Floridas native species are suffering. Some scientists believe there could be as many as 1.7 million currently undiscovered viruses in mammals and birds, of which up to 827,000 could have the ability to infect people, according to a 2018 study. Climate change has already affected migration patterns, and infected birds may move to deforested areas that are more suitable habitats for them, spreading their diseases to the local bird populations. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? When deforestation occurs, temperature variates more drastically from day to night and this extreme change can often prove fatal for many animal species. deforestation, the clearing or thinning of forests by humans. CONTACTS: WCN, www.worldcarfree.net; EDF, www.edf.org; REDD, www.un-redd.org. If trees are removed, the area can become much warmer and drier, which may result in desertification, which is a transformation of once fertile land into desert. Deforestation represents one of the largest issues in global land use. Through land erosion, the soil is depleted of its nutrients, a huge source of nourishment for animals and plants. These uncontacted tribes live by the rules of nature but are becoming increasingly vulnerable to deforestation, which has forced many of them to migrate. Unauthorized use is prohibited. One of Earth's loneliest volcanoes holds an extraordinary secret. The closer humans are to animals, the greater the opportunity for zoonotic spillover, where a pathogen jumps from animal to human. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? 59% occurs in Latin America, with a further 28% from Southeast Asia. Thanks for reading Scientific American. This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? Omissions? How does deforestation cause soil erosion and desertification? , Cattle ranching and deforestation are strongest in Latin America. Thanks to the program, Brazil has slowed deforestation within its borders by 40 percent since 2008 and is on track to achieve an 80 percent reduction by 2020. However, the rapid destruction of forests is contributing to a decline in biodiversity never seen before. (The rest lies along that countrys borders to the west and to the north.) Most present-day croplands receive enough rain and are warm enough to have once supported forests of one kind or another. What are the 10 effects of deforestation? Virus-carrying rodents have also been spotted in deforested areas in Panama, Bolivia, and in Brazil. Because boundaries between these categories are inevitably arbitrary, estimates differ regarding how much deforestation has occurred in the tropics. Unless we change the present system that rewards forest destruction, forest clearing will put another 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in coming decades, says EDF. According to a 2010 congressional study, 17 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation, from both burning trees and the resulting loss of photosynthesis, which removes carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) from the atmosphere. WebAbstract. However, if crops are introduced on a smaller scale and don't displace native species, they can actually increase diversity since they can act as a habitat for birds and herbivores. Furthermore, many animal species are heavily reliant on specific plants and their fruits for food sources. In Malaysia and Indonesia, forests are cut down to make way for producing palm oil, which can be found in everything from shampoo to saltine crackers. A massive 41 percent of tropical deforestation 2.1 million hectares a year is directly linked to the expansion of pasture for grazing beef cattle, mostly in Brazil. Conservation costs money, while profits from timber, charcoal, pasture and cropland drive people to cut down forests, adds EDF. The effects of soil erosion go beyond the loss of fertile land. To reduce climate change pollution produced by our current dependence on fossil fuels, renewable energy is our only economic long-term option. Hand-picked stories once a fortnight. By donating us $100, $50 or subscribe to Boosting $10/month we can get this article and others in front of tens of thousands of specially targeted readers. Scott has a biochemistry degree from UCSB with research experience and has a passion for science as well as writing. Over time, that adds up, outweighing the profits that could be gained by cutting forests down and making a compelling financial argument to leave some forests standing, Daszak says. A wedge-shaped expanse of water between the Everglades and the Florida Keys, it is a clean, sun-dappled 1,000 sq mile playground for reddening tourists, grizzled fishermen and loud-shirted locals. Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey. Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion, because water is abundant and has a lot of power. We promise, no spam! There, a number of diseases transmitted by a wide range of animalsfrom blood-sucking bugs to snailshave been linked to deforestation. They live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow and hunt their food. In terms of climate change, cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. What are the harmful effects of soil erosion? Cutting down trees can disrupt the cycle by decreasing precipitation and affecting river flow and water volume. Clearing like this is linked to the spread of infectious diseases like malaria. This, in turn, contributes to destroying forests, intensifying deforestation even more. These animals can sniff it out. Not all deforestation is intentional. . Many factors related to cutting down trees contribute to driving species to extinction. As widespread burning continues today in tropical forests in the Amazon, and some parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, experts have expressed concern about the health of people living at the frontiers of deforestation. We cut down forests to build our homes and feed our growing population, while destroying the homes and food of our native wildlife. Large scale destruction of treesdeforestationaffects ecosystems, climate, and even increases risk for zoonotic diseases spreading to humans. Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. One of the most dangerous and unsettling effects of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat. As more and more soil is lost, the remaining soil is poorly suited to retaining moisture, leading to desertification. Starved of fresh water from a reworking of its natural plumbing further north and menaced by seas rising due to climate change, the Everglades and its adjoining bay are teetering at the edge of existential crisis. Humans can contract Lassa virus when they come into contact with food or objects contaminated with feces or urine of virus-carrying rodents or bodily fluids of infected people. In some cases, however, even partial logging and accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest structure dramatically. . However, deforestation is turning these sinks into huge net emitters. All rights reserved, widespread burning continues today in tropical forests, Malariawhich kills over a million annually. Deforestation also affects nearby rivers, streams, and other water sources as nutrients from the soil are removed through leaching, which happens when water (e.g., The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? They found that the effects increased with the more land included, with no effects discernible within 10 square miles of deforestation, but a Deforestation weakens this process, leading to irregular rainfall patterns including drought and flooding. This Tribe Thinks So. Deforestation is a major cause of soil erosion, perhaps the main cause. Decades of often poisonous politics have pushed the Everglades, one of the largest and perhaps best-known wetlands in the world, down the path of entropy and potential collapse. Although wind usually erodes soil more slowly than water, Florida does have an active hurricane season from June to November. About half of eastern North America lay deforested in the 1870s, almost all of it having been deforested at least once since European colonization in the early 1600s. In answering the question of how does deforestation affect the environment, you may discover that in fact, it also has a direct impact on the human population. Not long after the bats settled on trees in Malaysian orchards, pigs around them started to fall sickpresumably after eating fallen fruit the bats had nibbled onas did local pig farmers. In addition to their role as carbon sinks, forests are a crucial component of the water cycle and have the all important function of preventing desertification. As the world seeks to slow the pace of climate change, preserve wildlife, and support more than eight billion people, trees inevitably hold a major part of the answer. 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. The Everglades link to its headwater in Lake Okeechobee has been severed, with water diverted via canals for agriculture, particularly sugar. We need trees for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit. In the practice of clear-cutting, all the trees are removed from the land, which completely destroys the forest. Healthy forests act as extremely valuable carbon sinks, with the Amazon rainforest being one of the worlds most important ones. The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. Estimates of deforestation Yarborough morosely added: The water used to be so clear you could see the seagrass move back and forth. Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. He and his colleagues are beginning work with the Malaysian government to incorporate this into land use planning, and are undertaking a similar project with Liberian officials to calculate the cost of Lassa fever outbreaks there. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forestswhich leads to further deforestation. In Tanzania, the residents of Kokota have planted more than 2 million trees on their small island over a decade, aiming to repair previous damage. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial. We dont get much ice here in Lawrenceville, GA, but for those that do, the concept is the same as water. Another important role of trees is to regulate the temperature of forests and maintain it constant. Some of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere comes from dead vegetation that decomposes in the ground. That I think is the silver lining that we should keep in mind., Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. In some cases, soil erosion is natural, but humans also contribute to the problem by stripping away natural protections like trees and other vegetation, or overgrazing land with livestock.5 Ways of Preventing Soil Erosion (for Homeowners).