how does deforestation affect florida how does deforestation affect florida

The Everglades link to its headwater in Lake Okeechobee has been severed, with water diverted via canals for agriculture, particularly sugar. 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. Organizations and activists are working to fight illegal mining and loggingNational Geographic Explorer Topher White, for example, has come up with a way to use recycled cell phones to monitor for chainsaws. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. Forests can also help reduce the impacts of flood from storms by blocking and slowing down the flow of runoff. In terms of climate change, cutting trees both adds carbon dioxide to the air and removes the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide. Its a numbers game: The more we degrade and clear forest habitats, the more likely it is that were going to find ourselves in these situations where epidemics of infectious diseases occur.. The REDD program has channeled over $117 million in direct financial aid and educational support into national deforestation reduction efforts in 44 developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America since its 2008 inception. You might also like: 12 Major Companies Responsible for Deforestation. The dead water sort of moves around the bay and you think Ive just gotta get out of here.. While deforestation may occur locally, its effect is global. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells review our terrifying future, Am I the only one whos terrified about the warm weather? 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. 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. In the South Asian Monsoon region, the reduction in rainfall is even higher, with around, Aside from their contribution to the water flow, trees help the land retain water and sustain forest life by supplying the soil with rich nutrients. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. Climate change has accelerated the rate of ice loss across the continent. Creating your LandScope profile is fast, free, and simple. Some viruses, like Ebola or Nipah, can be transmitted directly between people, theoretically allowing them to travel around the world as long as there are humans. 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. Where humans once used sticks and stones, they have since developed technology that dramatically accelerated the speed of erosion, Wilkinson said. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants 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. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. 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. And degraded lands are also often less able to hold onto water, which can worsen flooding. 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? Price said this accelerating climate trend, driven by the melting of glaciers and expanding sea water, will see the Everglades retreat further north. The Amazon rainforest is home to over one million Indigenous people, mostly of Indian descent, divided into more than 400 indigenous tribes. And consumers can help stop it. Work in the late 1990s by Amy Vittor, an epidemiologist at the University of Floridas Emerging Pathogens Institute, and others, suggested a reason why. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. WebDeforestation not only contributes to changes in the climate, it also causes localized changes in the weather. This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals. We cut down forests to build our homes and feed our growing population, while destroying the homes and food of our native wildlife. REDD essentially works to establish incentives for the people who care for the forest to manage it sustainably while still being able to benefit economically. This targeted Boosting helps us to reach wider audiences aiming to convince the unconvinced, to inform the uninformed, to enlighten the dogmatic. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees. Deforestation deprives the land of its cover, leaving the soil exposed to wind and rain. 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. Photograph by Richard Barnes, Nat Geo Image Collection. Water sources in deforested areas were shown to have higher nitrate levels, lower dissolved oxygen levels, and somewhat higher temperatures (from 20 to 23 degrees Celsius on average) than in forested areas. We only get about a third of the water in the eastern Florida Bay that we received historically. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Higher food prices, water availability, violent conflicts for land, migration, increasing poverty, pollution from wind-blown dust particles coming from distant lands, could be the outcomes of desertification if we let it consume more of our planet. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the annual rate of deforestation is about 1.3 million square km per decade, though the rate has slowed in some places in the early 21st century as a result of enhanced forest management practices and the establishment of nature preserves. However, the rapid destruction of forests is contributing to a decline in biodiversity never seen before. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? The closer humans are to animals, the greater the opportunity for zoonotic spillover, where a pathogen jumps from animal to human. , Wind. Separate red tide algal outbreaks in the ocean ravaged Florida last year, leading to beaches being closed, horrified dog owners who saw their pets poisoned, and hundreds of tons of dead fish and manatees piling up along the Gulf coast. According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a leading green group, 32 million acres of tropical rainforest were cut down each year between 2000 and 2009and the pace of deforestation is only increasing. Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion, because water is abundant and has a lot of power. , Ice. The destruction of trees may, therefore, encourage global warming. 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. . This area, just last year smelled like death. reducing carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the atmosphere. Wind can also make soil erode by displacing it. Indeed, a forthcoming study shows that left unchecked, deforestation will cost Florida timber and agriculture between $4 billion and $6 billion. for achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Whether such diseases stay confined to forest fringes or if they gain their own foothold in people, unleashing a potential pandemic, depends on their transmission, Vittor says. Such processes arent limited to tropical diseases. Which is worse deforestation or desertification? 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. 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. Statistics show that deforestation in the tropics reduces precipitation over the Amazon by around 10%, or 138 millimeter, every year. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? What if we could clean them out? What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? Wind is also a leading cause of soil erosion because wind can pick up soil and blow it far away. Obviously, this is the biggest effect of soil erosion. Fire is also commonly used to clear forests in Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, and the Americas for permanent oil palm plantations. (NPR) Exacerbating global warming isnt the only negative impact of tropical deforestation. An iceberg melts in the waters off Antarctica. Thanks for reading Scientific American. 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. Id hate to think that another or several other pathogens could do such a thing, but itd be foolish not to think of that as a possibility to prepare for, says Vittor. The scientific consensus on deforestation is that it intensifies climate change at a dramatic rate. How does human activities cause soil erosion? A movement is under way to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover by first reforesting (replanting trees) and ultimately rewilding (a more comprehensive mission to restore entire ecosystems). On average, they found that the Malaysian government spends around $5,000 to treat each new malaria patient in the regionin some areas much more than they spend on malaria control, Zambrana-Torrelio says. Some of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere comes from dead vegetation that decomposes in the ground. At first pass, there seems little amiss in the idyll of Florida Bay. According to National Geographic, Deforestation is clearing Earths forests on For consumers, it makes sense to examine the products and meats you buy, looking for sustainably produced sources when you can. 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. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planet, but these habitats are being cleared on a massive scale. Identify Priority Places: A Practitioner's Guide, Florida Vegetation 2003 and Land Use Change Between 1985-89 and 2003. We'll be adding other personal features soon. Its an all-too-common pattern seen across the tropics: to make room for crops, forests come down. This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals. , Excessive Use of Fertilizers and Pesticides. 2022 - 2023 Times Mojo - All Rights Reserved Cattle or sheep pastures in North America or Europe are easy to identify, and they support large numbers of animals. However, the rapid destruction of forests is contributing to a decline in biodiversity never seen before. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. As a registered user, you can customize maps, save them, and share them with your friends. Few places exist in eastern North America that retain stands of uncut old-growth forests. 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. Populations located in the proximity of tropical forests are mostly impacted by the worsening trend. In fact, 60 percent of new infectious diseases that emerge in peopleincluding HIV, Ebola, and Nipah, all of which originated in forest-dwelling animalsare transmitted by a range of other animals, the vast majority of them wildlife. Clearing like this is linked to the spread of infectious diseases like malaria. How does deforestation effect Florida? The extent to which forests have become Earths grazing lands is much more difficult to assess. The most significant effect of forest degradation is loss of habitat leading to species loss. Explore DeSantis has outlined a major plan to rescue the Everglades. Knowledge awaits. To answer the question of how deforestation affects the environment, it is important to look at why humans need forests in the first place. Significance. Photograph by William Daniels, Nat Geo Image Collection. Flash floods, rivers and streams, slowly but surely erode rock. Deforestation weakens this process, leading to irregular rainfall patterns including drought and flooding. Biodiversity is the number of species in a given ecosystem. Please select which sections you would like to print: Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, N.C., and Extraordinary Professor, Conservation Ecology Research Unit, University of Pretoria, Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. With many Florida On top of known diseases, scientists fear that a number of yet-unknown deadly diseases are lurking in forests that could be exposed as people encroach further. Brazil is among the countries embracing REDD among other efforts to reduce carbon emissions. For instance, forests perform important functions like: regulating weather conditions. It becomes harder to grow crops on eroded soils and local flora and fauna typically suffer. maintaining On a governmental level, the consequences of deforestation can be mitigated by introducing policies that protect natural forests and regulate mining and logging operations as well as other operations that require the destruction of tree plantations. 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. Alfonso Rodriguez-Morales, a medical researcher and tropical disease expert at Colombias Universidad Tecnolgica de Pereira, fears that their ranges will increase following the resurgence of fires in the Amazon this year. 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. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. Zika virus, which was discovered in Ugandan forests in the 20th century, could only cruise the world and infect millions because it found a host in Aedes aegpti, a mosquito that thrives in urban areas. The Amazon Rainforest is the largest remaining block of humid tropical forest, and about two-thirds of it is in Brazil. (The rest lies along that countrys borders to the west and to the north.) Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? 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. Deforestation and desertification have many detrimental effects on the environment, but one of the most devastating impacts is the loss of biodiversity. A major contributor to tropical deforestation is the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture, or swidden agriculture (see also shifting agriculture). Indigenous communities who live in forests and depend on them to sustain their life bear the brunt of impacts from deforestation. 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 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. . Boost this article They found that the effects increased with the more land included, with no effects discernible within 10 square miles of deforestation, but a Deforestation: Which countries are still cutting down trees?Brazil: Illegal logging continues. Some 60% of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil, and it plays a vital role in absorbing harmful CO2 that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere.Congo basin: Agriculture and mining. The Congo forest basin is the second-largest rainforest in the world. Indonesia: Palm oil plantations. Diseases can also occur when new habitats draw disease-carrying species out of the forest. This water replenishes clouds and maintains rainfall. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. 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. WebThe world loses almost six million hectares of forest each year to deforestation. 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. , Agriculture Expansion & Livestock Ranching. 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. In fact, 80% of Earths land animals and plants live in forests. (National Geographic Deforestation 1) Animals would lose shelter, food resources, and breeding area. In some cases, however, even partial logging and accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest structure dramatically. The patient is on life support at the moment, said Steve Davis, senior ecologist at conservation not-for-profit Everglades Foundation, describing what was once a prime fishing area in the western portion of the bay. From logging, agricultural production and other economic activities, deforestation adds more atmospheric CO2 than the sum total of cars and trucks on the world's roads, Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that cutting and burning trees adds more global warming pollution to the atmosphere than all the cars and trucks in the world combined? Mitchell Vale, Houston. Stopping deforestation before it reaches a critical point will play a key role in avoiding the next zoonotic pandemic. Without the nourishing freshwater, the ecosystem further south has become saltier and prone to disastrous events, such as happened in 2015, when pristine water turns into a muddy slush, causing fish to flee or die. The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. 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. The increase of mining on tropical forests is furthering damage due to the rising demand and high mineral prices. Climate change is the greatest existing threat to American wildlife, wild places, and communities around the country. Most present-day croplands receive enough rain and are warm enough to have once supported forests of one kind or another. Water. Copyright 2023 NatureServe. Corrections? Voters got hyped up about red tide and said we want the government to act, said Rene Price, an expert in the hydrology of the Everglades at Florida International University. Obviously, Florida's native However, some national governments have also undertaken ambitious replanting projects. One solution, Davis and other advocates believe, is to create a vast reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee that would store water intended for the Everglades. Another important role of trees is to regulate the temperature of forests and maintain it constant. In deserts, high winds send tiny particles hurtling up into the air. Virus-carrying rodents have also been spotted in deforested areas in Panama, Bolivia, and in Brazil. Logging operations, which provide the worlds wood and paper products, also fell countless trees each year. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Learn more about deforestation.). New plantations are often formed usingslash-and-burnagricultural methods, and the resulting fragmentation of natural forests and loss ofhabitatthreatens native plants and animals. Wildlife habitat has declined and even disappeared during the past 100 years as natural lands were converted to agriculture, range lands, and expanding urban areas. They live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow and hunt their food. Our goal is to make science relevant and fun for everyone. At least 2 million square km (772,204 square miles) of such forests have been cleared for grazing lands. The effects of soil erosion go beyond the loss of fertile land. As more and more forest is cleared around the world, scientists fear that the next deadly pandemic could emerge from what lives within them. Find out how a tribe in the Amazon is using old cell phones and machine learning to help save their forest home. Roads serve as barriers, confining many species of wildlife within restricted areas. Soil erosion tends to be greater in drier, more mountainous areas, where there is less vegetation to prevent the movement of soil and to absorb the nutrients. Sign in with your username (email address) and password. While food availability for Indigenous tribes and animals that live in forests is reduced in the process of deforestation, its effects on weather patterns and soil degradation also drastically decrease agricultural productivity. Image by Global Forest Watch. Can we bring a species back from the brink? Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. , Wind. Forests are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. Those were the [places] that Anopheles darlingi really enjoyed being, Vittor recalls. 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. 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.