Rain forests occur throughout the world where both heavy rains occur and where forests grow. By definition, a rain forest needs to receive more than eight feet of rain annually. Rain forests cover seven percent of the Earths land surface, and two percent of its total surface. Although they cover only a small portion of the Earth, rain forests are home to over fifty percent of the worlds plants and animals. Rain forests are concentrated around the equator, occurring between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, 23.5 degrees north and 23.5 degrees south respectively. The rain forests are made of many different types of surfaces and soils.
The minerals that were contained in grains near the surface are leached out and have move downwards. Therefore, the layers of soil near the surface will be depleted in some things and layers at depth will be enriched in them. An abundance of water (such as the rain forest has) speeds up the leaching process. Therefore, everything needed for plant growth should have been removed by water, but plants still grow there. Plants are able to do this because of rapid recycling caused by termites and bacteria in a warm, wet climate. When the forest is cut down, all that stops, and the farmers are faced with growing crops in infertile soils. Throughout the tropics, rain forests are being cut down. By different methods and for different reasons, people are cutting down, burning, or otherwise damaging the forests.
People throughout the world are worried about the destruction of the rain forest because we are not only losing beautiful areas, but we are nearing the extinction of many species and changes in our global climate. If the world continues at the current rate of deforestation, the worlds rain forests will be gone within 100 years causing unknown effects to the global climate and the elimination of the majority of plant and animal species stated by J. Lawton of Oxford University Press. The majority of deforestation occurs for agricultural use such as grazing of cattle, and the planting of crops. Poor farmers chop down a small are (typically a few acres) and burn the tree trunks, a process called slash and burn agriculture. Intensive, or modern, agriculture occurs on al much larger scale, sometimes several square miles at a time. Another type of farming practiced in rain forests is called, shade agriculture. In this type of farming, many of the original rain forest trees are left to provide shade-loving crops like coffee or chocolate.
The Essay on Rain Forest Depletion
Rainforest Deforestation: Do We Care Enough? The villagers walk the charred ruins of their village, looking for any personal possessions that can be salvaged after the fire. Looking out from the remains, they see the trucks already winding their way up the newly made dirt road. Soon, the landscape around their village will be irrevocably changed as well. The loggers will strip the forest of all ...
When the farm is abandoned, the forest grows back very quickly, because much of it was left unharmed in the first place. After this type of farming, forests can grow back as quickly as 20 years instead the usual 50 years. Commercial logging, the cutting of trees for sale as timber or pulp is another form of destruction of the rain forest. Logging can occur selectively, where only the economically valuable types of trees are cut, or by clear-cutting, where all trees are cut. When a rain forest is commercially logged, the results are different than that of agricultural. Under selective logging, only a few trees are cut down for timber.
However, the use of heavy machinery, like bulldozers and road graders, tear up the ground and knock down or damage many other trees. In a study in Indonesia, Andrew Johns found that when cutting down only three percent of the trees, a logging operation damaged forty-nine percent of all trees (Johns 1989).
Yet even with all that damage, the rain forest will grow back relatively quickly if left alone after selective logging, because there are still many trees to provide seeds and protect young trees from too much sun. Clearcutting is much more damaging to a rain forest. When the land is commercially clearcut and all of the trees are removed, the bare ground is left behind with very little that can grow on it. Unlike when the farmer cleared the land, there are almost no nutrients left behind because all the tree trunks were removed. A clearcut forest can require many years to regenerate. In fact, scientists do not know how long it takes for a clearcut forest to grow back. Large cattle pastures often replace rain forest to raise beef for the world market, proving that not all deforestation is bad.
The Essay on Closed Single Canopy Forest Trees Tree Felt
As I walked through the orange gates at the McDonald Research Forest, I didn't really know what to expect. It actually turned out to be a unique and interesting experience. Since I haven't put much thought into forestry and the different types that exist, this field trip definitely broadened my horizons. Most of the forest types I visited were among the five that were to be managed in the new ...
The agricultural society needs more land to supply the ever-growing markets of today. Because of their basic need for food, peasant farmers often cause rain forest destruction to raise crops for self-support. Most tropical countries are very poor by our (U.S.) standards, and farming is a basic way of life for a large part of their population. A competitive global economy forces the poorer tropical countries the need to raise money. At the national level, the governments of these countries sell logging concessions to raise money for projects, to pay international debt, or to develop industry. For example, Brazil had an international debt of $159 billion in 1995, on which it had to make payments each year. The destruction of the rainforest plays an immense role between five to eighty billion species of plants and animals. Tropical rainforest, covering only seven percent of the total dry surface of the Earth, hold over half of all of the species on the planet.
The loss of species will have a great impact on the planet. For us, humans, we are losing organisms that might have shown us how to, for example, prevent cancer or cure AIDS. Other organisms are losing species that they depend upon, and thus face extinction themselves. The destruction of the rain forest is a threat to life worldwide. Rain forest depletion will have a profound effect on global climate and cause the extinction of thousands of species each year. Stopping this destruction has become an international movement. Because the loss of the rain forest is such a complex group of factors, the solutions are equally complex.
The future requires solutions based in solving the economic crises of countries that have extensive rain forests, as well as improvement of the living conditions of the poor people often responsible for rain forest destruction.
The Essay on Middle Class Countries Poor Liberals
There is no guessing where the oligarchs stand. 'All power and wealth to the oligarchy' is their motto. Those existing in the lower ranks of poverty are of no concern to the upper class, exploiting other members of society are what they do best. The tory we find at the other end of the scale. In tory society tradition rules; taking the group's well being rather than the individual is primary. ...
Bibliography:
References www.forests.org Justus Bingham www.eco-portal.com Bernadette Bartlett www.tqjunior.thinkquest.org Lauren Holly www.rain-tree.com Micheal Jones.
