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Impact of deforestation on flora and fauna

Young Bites. Dated: 3/21/2018 12:20:09 PM

Deforestation is directly related to environment,global warming,flora and fauna of a state. . The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Eighty percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes. Deforestation also drives climate change. Deforestation is clearing Earth’s forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area.The world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation.As we all know that deforestation has a negative impact on the environment.
The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often, small farmers will clear a few acres by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as slash and burn agriculture.
An alleged nexus between timber smugglers and land mafia with forest officials lead to deforestation which is an alarming situation and should be dealt with iron hands.
Logging operations, which provide the world’s wood and paper products, also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forests which leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl as land is developed for dwellings.
Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees.
Trees also help, perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor to the atmosphere. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day, and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.
Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and increased speed and severity of global warming.
The most feasible solution to deforestation is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting to make sure forest environments remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced by planting young trees to replace older trees felled. The number of new tree plantations is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny fraction of the Earth’s forested land.
. Deforestation not only affects the climate by increasing the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide but also affects the environment by inhibiting water recycling, triggering severe flooding, aquifer depletion, soil degradation and the extinction of plant and animal species.
Trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis .Cutting down forests will cause a decline in photosynthetic activity which results in the atmosphere retaining higher levels of carbon dioxide. Forests also store an enormous amount of organic carbon which is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Water recycling is the movement of rain from the forest to land masses. When rain falls on forests the water is intercepted by the forest canopy. Some of this intercepted water is returned to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration (release of water vapor into the atmosphere through stomata on tree leaves) while the rest is returned to the ocean as river runoff. In a healthy forest about three fourth of the intercepted water is returned to the atmosphere as moisture laden air masses which move inland, cool and are converted to rain and delivers less rain. Deforestation inhibits water recycling and converts inland forest to dry land and potential waste land.
Severe flooding is a result of deforestation because removal of the forest leaves little vegetative cover to hold heavy rains. The excess water from land cleared of forest becomes runoff water and enters the ocean instead of seeping downward into the soil to recharge aquifers. Aquifer depletion is already becoming a serious problem in certain areas of the planet and as the human population continues to grow so will the demand for fresh water.
Trees play a vital role in the equilibrium of the ecosystem. Deforestation is a process of cutting trees to make space for pastures or for industries and households of the ever-increasing human population. Excessive cutting of trees for urban use and other purposes is detrimental to the environmental balance. It is needless to say that deforestation has several adverse effects on the environment.
. Burning of forests results in the emission of a large amount of carbon dioxide into the air. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases like the oxides of nitrogen and methane are known to trap atmospheric heat, thus increasing the average temperature of the Earth’s surface. This increase in the temperature near the Earth’s surface and oceans is termed as global warming.
The rise in the average temperature of our planet is bound to cause the sea level to increase. Global warming has already begun to cause the melting of glaciers and of the ice at the poles, thus adding to the rise in sea level. This phenomenon is a serious threat to the life on Earth and it is we who need to take the right measures to prevent this damage.
We should not forget that trees add to the biodiversity in nature. Animal life thrives on vegetation. By cutting down trees, we deprive animals of their sources of food and cause the destruction of animal life. It can lead to the extinction of a variety of animal species. Global warming that is largely caused by deforestation further endangers plant and animal life, thereby disturbing the balance in nature.
.By most accounts, deforestation in tropical rainforests adds more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world’s roads.
When trees are cut down and burned or allowed to rot, their stored carbon is released into the air as carbon dioxide. And this is how deforestation and forest degradation contribute to global warming.
We need to protect tropical forests from deforestation and degradation if we want to reduce emissions to the levels needed to protect the planet against the worst global warming impacts. Ending deforestation will not solve global warming by itself, of course—urgent action is needed to cut the other 90 percent of emissions. But the problem cannot be solved if the role of tropical deforestation is ignored.
As reducing deforestation has other benefits beyond reducing global warming pollution. Tropical forests are home to many unique species of animals and plants. Animals such as the jaguar risk extinction if we do not act to protect their tropical forest habitat. In addition, tropical forests are crucial sources of food, medicine, and clean drinking water for people in developing countries. Tropical forests help regulate regional rainfall and prevent both floods and droughts. Reducing deforestation is not only a beneficial action against global warming it also can make important contributions to saving biodiversity and supporting sustainable development.
Deforestation, the depletion of forests and other wild flora in woodlands, has significant effects on the weather for millions of species..
Animals may not be able to find adequate shelter, water, and food to survive within remaining habitat³.
Animals may also encounter dangerous situations when they attempt to migrate between habitat fragments, such as increased human-wildlife conflicts and being hit by vehicles. With increased habitat edge, wildlife may experience an increased vulnerability to predation, poaching, wind, sunlight, invasion of exotic plant and animal species into remaining forest habitat, and other factors such as natural disasters that were not as much of a threat prior to the deforestation event³..
Deforestation may reduce the remaining forest area’s resilience to threats such as wildfires.