Deforestation In the Amazon Rainforest

1
Deforestation In the Amazon Rainforest

• By Anna Rivero
• Brynne Bartiromo
• Amy Zhuang

2
What is Deforestation?

• Deforestation is when a forest is wiped out and
  the population of trees decrease.
• Deforestation is mostly a human caused issue.

3
How? Why?

• How- The majority of deforestation happens
  because of poor substiences cultivators.
  Substience cultivators are farmers who use
  resources in order to survive but dont have a
  big impact on the land. So the goals for anyone
  is to use minimum resources so the forests are
  not harmed.
• 1- cattle pasture( 65-70)
• 2- colonization and subsequent agriculture(
  20-25)
• 3-commercial agriculture(5-10)
• 4- logging(2-3)
• 5-fires, mining urbanization, road construction,
  dams( 1-2)
• Why- Deforestation is happening because there is
  need for
• more land for farming and mining. More demand
  for
• lumber from the trees. Logging in the Amazon is
  used
• for roads, and building materials.

4
Prediction

• Things that could happen if this issue is not
  addressed is that
• There would be more endangered species (the
  golden headed lion is already endangered because
  of deforestations so more animals like this one
  will become endangered).
• The Amazon currently produces 15 to 20 to
  the earths oxygen supply but if deforestation
  continues we will slowly lose that percent of
  oxygen supply in the earth.
• Cutting down forests that are stored in the
  trees will return to the atmosphere as carbon
  dioxide.
• The balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide would
  be changed.
• More carbon dioxide in the air, because this is a
  greenhouse gas, global warming will occur and
  that could result in flood, droughts and other
  disasters.
• A quarter of todays medicine would be lost.
• 70 of plants that have anticancer properties
  are only found in the Amazon Rainforest.

5
Problems now

• every second one and a half acres of the
  rainforest are cut.
• A lot of animals are already endangered. Such as
  the lemurs.
• Soil erosion is a major problem in the Amazon.
• Land is being lost, for example the Amazon
  rainforest covers over 2.2 million square mile,
  but over 80 acres are being lost every minute.
• Trees are not being replanted so they are
  becoming rarer and rarer.
• Loss of biodiversity.

6
Biotic/abiotic factors

• Abiotic Factors (nonliving factors that affect
  the ecosystem)
• -water The human impacts are affecting the trees
  in which keep the water cycle flowing. This hurts
  the condition of the rainforest greatly.
• -temperature Because of the tree loss, the local
  climate is drying. This also affects living
  conditions in the rainforest.

• Biotic Factors
• The deforestation is mostly a biotic factor
  because it is a human impact. Also, the impact of
  humans may also lead to some abiotic factors.
• Some examples of factors can include logging and
  substinence farming as mentioned before.

7
Affects on the Environment

• The Amazon trees store organic carbon in biomass
  and soil. This prevents greenhouse gases from the
  atmosphere. Deforestation release the stored
  carbon into the atmosphere, which contributes to
  global warming. Depending how the forest is
  converted, the rate of releasing carbon is quick.
  Deforestation can also indirectly affect carbon
  storage in neighboring forest areas through
  changes in fire regimes.
• The hydrological cycle of the Amazon basin is
  greatly affected by the forests. Stream
  discharges within the Amazon is a factor or an
  effect from increasing deforestation rates.
• The water recycling weakening and the drying of
  local climate is affected by deforestation when
  deforestation reduces the evapotranspiration of
  moisture into the environment. Evapotranspiration
  is a process of transferring moisture from the
  earth to the atmosphere through evaporation and
  transpiration from the plants.

8
Water Cycle
9
Affects on the Water Cycle

• The recycling of water is affected from
  deforestation. The water cycle relies much on
  transpiration, which is the evaporation of water
  from trees into the atmosphere. Then, that water
  is condensed and then precipitated. That is
  briefly how the water cycle goes. Deforestation
  decreases the rates and slows the process of
  recycling the water because transpiration is
  stopped as a result of the decrease in trees. The
  water cycle is not only an affect to the
  environment, but it also affects the living
  organisms that live in the rainforest.

10
Carbon Cycle
11
Affects on the Carbon Cycle

• The carbon cycle is very dependent on plants and
  trees. The plants take carbon from the atmosphere
  through photosynthesis, and then release oxygen
  for animals to use. Respiration from other plants
  and animals return carbon back into the
  atmosphere, and the cycle continues. When the
  number of plants start to decrease, the releasing
  of oxygen will also be slowed. Thus, the carbon
  cycle is affected. Other organisms will also be
  affected from this result.

12
Affects on Organisms

• Affects of the organisms-homes are being
  destroyed-animals are becoming endangered-food
  chain is affected
• -Decreasing biodiversity
• -Scientists believe that over 137 species of
  plants and animals are being lost every single
  day due to rainforest deforestation.

13
Food Chains
14
Affects on Humans

• Affects of the People-The affects of organisms
  and the environment both impact humans.    -the
  decreasing number of species will eventually
  affect us in the food chain.    -The environment
  such as that of climate change will affect us.
  Same with the addition to global warming and the
  affects of the water flow and carbon flow.-
  Deforestation will eventually lead to a decrease
  of important resources. Humans are using up too
  much.
• Rainforest plants contain biodynamic compounds
  that may be used in modern day medicines. The
  destruction of the rainforest will prevent humans
  to discover new medicines.
• Many people use logging for hardwoods, fuel
  woods, and paper. As the forest begins to
  decrease in natural resources such as wood, we
  will lack the necessary materials for hardwoods,
  fuels, papers, etc.

15
Proposed Solution

• One of the new solutions that has been recently
  proposed is an idea called Cool Earth. The idea
  behind this is regular people buying bits of the
  rainforest so that other people like loggers
  cannot buy that land to cut it down. This way,
  the property isnt being used to be cut down, and
  it is protected since it is the property of the
  person that bought it. Of course this solution is
  just being presented, so there might be some side
  affects or set backs. For example, people might
  not want to buy parts of the rainforest that they
  cannot use. Basically, people would just be
  buying the property, but what would they do with
  it.? Yes, you are saving a part of the land, but
  how many people will just buy a piece of land for
  nothing?

16
Our Solution

• A new program will be proposed called the
  Amazon Rainforest Organization. This Organization
  will support the rebirth of the Amazon
  Rainforest. The main focus of the project is to
  replant some of the destructed land. For example,
  we will replant some of some of the trees, and we
  will strive to preserve some land so that less of
  the rainforest will be cut down.
• This organization will be funded by the
  government and by donations from anyone. This
  program will most likely be supported by the
  government because it will benefit not only the
  environment, but also the organisms that live
  there and even the people. As time progresses,
  the forest will eventually restore itself. More
  organisms will be able to settle in, and the
  resources will increase as the trees are
  restored. This will require national support
  because the resources from the rainforest is
  exported world wide.

17
What does deforestation look like?
18
Picture cited

• http//mentalfloss.cachefly.net/blogs/wp-content/u
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  and-projection-towards-2020.jpg
• http//www.leslietaylor.net/gallery/destruction/de
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Cited work

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