how does deforestation affect florida

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. Studies show that, 15,3 billion trees are chopped down every year. Deforestation refers to the intentional clearing of forest lands for urban expansion, cattle farming, agricultural cropland, and other human purposes. With wild habitats destroyed and human life ever expanding, the line between animal and human areas blurs, opening the door to zoonotic diseases. The South American rainforest, for example, influences regional and perhaps even global water cycles, and it's key to the water supply in Brazilian cities and neighboring countries. 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. 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. There is also the imminent danger of disease caused by deforestation. To meet the needs of the rapidly growing human population and protect global food supplies, agricultural expansion has occurred on a massive scale, accounting for 90% of deforestation To learn about the history of habitat loss in Florida, check out the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Report, Florida Vegetation 2003 and Land Use Change Between 1985-89 and 2003. Studies in the Amazon reveal that about 5,000 square km (1,931 square miles) are at least partially logged each year. The reason that logging is so bad for the climate is that when trees are felled they release the carbon they are storing into the atmosphere, where it mingles with greenhouse gases from other sources and contributes to global warming accordingly.

An iceberg melts in the waters off Antarctica. They live in settled villages by the rivers, and grow and hunt their food. Trees are known for their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Human interaction The destruction of forests and the splitting up into smaller areas makes them more accessible to humans. Find out the causes, effects, and solutions. Trees and their roots provide the soil with an anchor, as well as shelter from the wind and rain. 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? What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? This area, just last year smelled like death. In some cases, however, even partial logging and accidental fires thin out the trees enough to change the forest structure dramatically. 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. CONTACTS: WCN, www.worldcarfree.net; EDF, www.edf.org; REDD, www.un-redd.org. One way some tropical countries are reducing deforestation is through participation in the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. Image by Global Forest Watch. Creating your LandScope profile is fast, free, and simple. Through land erosion, the soil is depleted of its nutrients, a huge source of nourishment for animals and plants. We only get about a third of the water in the eastern Florida Bay that we received historically. Environmentalists are optimistic that the initial success of REDD in Brazil bodes well for reducing deforestation in other parts of the tropics as well. Its an all-too-common pattern seen across the tropics: to make room for crops, forests come down. DeSantis backed the plan and recently penned a letter to Trump, alongside Florida senators Scott and Marco Rubio, to ask for funding.

, The 'extreme cruelty' around the global trade in frog legs, What does cancer smell like? Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. Healthy forests act as extremely valuable carbon sinks, with the Amazon rainforest being one of the worlds most important ones. We'll be adding other personal features soon. As more and more forest is cleared around the world, scientists fear that the next deadly pandemic could emerge from what lives within them. Furthermore, many animal species are heavily reliant on specific plants and their fruits for food sources. Other effects of erosion include increased flooding, increased sedimentation in rivers and streams, loss of soil nutrients and soil degradation, and, in extreme cases, desertification. These uncontacted tribes live by the rules of nature but are becoming increasingly vulnerable to deforestation, which has forced many of them to migrate. 59% occurs in Latin America, with a further 28% from Southeast Asia. In recent decades, Floridas massive population growth and booming tourism industry have disturbed and fragmented many natural areas across the state. To reduce climate change pollution produced by our current dependence on fossil fuels, renewable energy is our only economic long-term option. Populations located in the proximity of tropical forests are mostly impacted by the worsening trend. Zambrana-Torrelio notes that the likelihood of spillovers to people may increase as the climate warms, pushing animals, along with the viruses they carry, into regions where theyve never existed before, he says. The soil that provides nutrients for vegetation in ecosystems is also affected by deforestation. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? One of the most dangerous and unsettling effects of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat. Eddie Yarborough, a leathery fishing guide who has spent the last 25 years traversing the bay for trout, redfish and snook, likens the water to chocolate milk. Water is the most common cause of soil erosion. However, deforestation is turning these sinks into huge net emitters. Since taking office in January, DeSantis has taken an unTrumpian approach to the environment, outlining a $2.5bn plan over four years to rescue the ailing Everglades. This research is the first to show how we can predict and avoid spillovers through monitoring and maintaining wildlife habitats. Many viruses exist harmlessly with their host animals in forests, because the animals have co-evolved with them. Deforestation is the clearing of forests to obtain lumber and provide space for either agricultural zones or urban development. 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. Impact of Deforestation - Species Loss, Extinction and Disease A fully functioning forest has a great capacity to regenerate. 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. They range from rainforests that are hot and wet year-round to forests that are merely humid and moist, to those in which trees in varying proportions lose their leaves in the dry season, and to dry open woodlands. A direct link. Diseases can also occur when new habitats draw disease-carrying species out of the forest. Rainforest is cleared for cattle farming along the Trans-Amazonian Highway. Since the 1870s the regions forest cover has increased, though most of the trees are relatively young. MacDonald sees value in this idea: If we can conserve the environment, then perhaps we can also protect health, he says. Explore Photograph by William Daniels, Nat Geo Image Collection. The main cause of man-made erosion is agriculture, followed by construction and mining. However, some national governments have also undertaken ambitious replanting projects. Forests cover about 30 percent of the planet, but these habitats are being cleared on a massive scale. The Global Forest Watch made it clear: protecting tropical rainforests is essential for achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. How does deforestation cause soil erosion and desertification? Learn more about deforestation.). With the loss of trees and entire forests, homelands are also being destroyed in the process. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. Virus-carrying rodents have also been spotted in deforested areas in Panama, Bolivia, and in Brazil. This effect was most pronounced in the interior of the forest, where some patches of forest are still intact, providing the moist edge habitat that the mosquitoes like. This Tribe Thinks So. Deforestation also increases the risk of uncontrollable wildfires because of humans burning vegetation. What are the negative effects of desertification? But in Sabah, a part of Malaysian Borneo, malaria outbreaks also occur in tandem with bursts of forest clearing for palm oil and other plantations. These animals can sniff it out. Participating nations can then accrue and sell carbon pollution credits when they can prove they have lowered deforestation below a baseline. Almost half the world is made up of drylandsareas too dry to support large numbers of treesand most are considered grazing lands. Boost this article As more and more soil is lost, the remaining soil is poorly suited to retaining moisture, leading to desertification. Climate change has accelerated the rate of ice loss across the continent.
One year after the Super Bowl season was marred by a ban on Mexican avocado shipments, another threat has emerged: An environmental complaint that avocado growers are illegally destroying forests that provide critical habitat for monarch butterflies and other creatures, Learn how the Brazilian government incentivized forest clearing in the Amazon for beef production and ranching. Additional human activities that contribute to tropical deforestation include commercial logging and land clearing for cattle ranches and plantations of rubber trees, oil palm, and other economically valuable trees. So how does deforestation affect the environment and what threats does it pose to living species? The destruction of trees may, therefore, encourage global warming. Smothered in haze, the trees couldnt produce fruit, leaving resident fruit bats with no other option than to fly elsewhere in search of food, carrying with them a deadly disease. Deforestation also increases the risk of uncontrollable wildfires because of humans burning vegetation. Yarborough morosely added: The water used to be so clear you could see the seagrass move back and forth. Water. 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. Those were the [places] that Anopheles darlingi really enjoyed being, Vittor recalls. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Large scale tree cutting can lead to deforestation, a transformation of an area from forest to terrain with little vegetation. 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? . When these resources are lost, animals become weaker, more vulnerable to diseases and often succumb to starvation. Another important role of trees is to regulate the temperature of forests and maintain it constant. Obviously, Floridas native species are suffering. The main effect of deforestation on animals and plants is the loss of their habitat. 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. Inversely, when bats native habitats were left intact, they stayed away from humans. An iceberg melts in the waters off Antarctica. 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. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? 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. 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. In the practice of clear-cutting, all the trees are removed from the land, which completely destroys the forest. Thats like losing an area the size of Portugal every two years. for achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. The Global Forest Watch made it clear: protecting tropical rainforests is essential. Omissions? According to the World Carfree Network (WCN), cars and trucks account for about 14 percent of global carbon emissions, while most analysts attribute upwards of 15 percent to deforestation. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 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. 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. , Agriculture Expansion & Livestock Ranching. Florida has even thrown itself into a legal battle to halt a controversial oil drilling project in the north-eastern reaches of the Everglades. Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. Furthermore, many animal species are heavily reliant on specific plants and their fruits for food sources. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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). 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. 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. Just four commoditiesbeef, soy, palm oil, and wood productsdrive the majority of global deforestation. It becomes harder to grow crops on eroded soils and local flora and fauna typically suffer. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. A mans world? Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion, because water is abundant and has a lot of power. Soil in deforested areas is exposed to more sunlight, which increases the soil temperature and oxidizes the carbon in the soil to carbon dioxide. Obviously, this is the biggest effect of soil erosion. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. 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. Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme diseaseis transmitted by ticks that rely on forest-dwelling deer to breed and obtain enough blood to survive. However, the bacterium is also found in the white-footed mouse, which happens to thrive in forests fragmented by human settlements, MacDonald says. Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey. 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. When these resources are lost, animals become weaker, more vulnerable to diseases and often succumb to starvation. In Africa, studies have found little association between malaria and deforestationperhaps because the mosquito species there like to breed in sunlit bodies of water and favor open farmland over shady forest areas. Aside from desertification, there is no doubt that human activities are a major cause of soil erosion in general. This water replenishes clouds and maintains rainfall. 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. Some of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere comes from dead vegetation that decomposes in the ground. All rights reserved, widespread burning continues today in tropical forests, Malariawhich kills over a million annually. This led to the die-off of seagrass, crucial for local marine life, leaving the water matted with deceased vegetation. Its one of many infectious diseases usually confined to wildlife that have spilled over to people in areas undergoing rapid forest clearing. Many factors related to cutting down trees contribute to driving species to extinction. Thanks for reading Scientific American. What if we could clean them out? Such processes arent limited to tropical diseases. It was the first known emergence of Nipah virus in people, which has since caused a string of recurrent outbreaks across Southeast Asia. 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. This, in turn, contributes to destroying forests, intensifying deforestation even more. , Wind. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as much as, half of the worlds topsoil has been lost. And consumers can help stop it. The study authors also looked at how far the impacts of deforestation would reach, on a scale of 25 to 40,000 square kilometers (approximately 10 to 15,444 square miles), New Scientist explained. Indeed, millions of people living in these areas depend almost entirely on agriculture and are thus extremely vulnerable to the impact of deforestation on food security, struggling to grow enough food and prevent crops from damage. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. As their houses are destroyed and resources compromised, these tribes are forced to migrate elsewhere and find other ways to sustain themselves. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. 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. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial. And degraded lands are also often less able to hold onto water, which can worsen flooding. WebDeforestation affects the world in a negative way, with the most dramatic impact being the loss of habitat for millions of species. Cutting down trees can disrupt the cycle by decreasing precipitation and affecting river flow and water volume. Exacerbating global warming isnt the only negative impact of tropical deforestation. The scientific consensus on deforestation is that it intensifies climate change at a dramatic rate. 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. Learn about conservation and open space in your state. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl as land is developed for homes. Farming, grazing of livestock, mining, and drilling combined account for more than half of all deforestation. WebDeforestation not only contributes to changes in the climate, it also causes localized changes in the weather. The loss of clean water and biodiversity from all forests could have many other effects we cant foresee, touching even your morning cup of coffee.

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