Deforestation and the problems it causes
- Created by: EllieR15
- Created on: 15-02-15 19:31
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- Deforestation and the problems it causes
- Deforestation is the cutting down of trees.
- Why is it done?
- To provide timber to be used as building materials.
- Clear land for farming
- To provide more food (e.g. rice fields or farming more cattle)
- To grow crops from which biofuels based on ethanol can be produced
- To produce paper from wood
- Why is it done?
- Creates more methane in the atmosphere
- Rice is grown in warm, waterlogged conditions - ideal for decomposers
- The decomposers (organisms) produce methane, so more is released into the atmosphere. As deforestation may take place to clear land for rice fields.
- Cattle produce methane and rearing cattle means that more methane is released.
- Rice is grown in warm, waterlogged conditions - ideal for decomposers
- More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
- Carbon dioxide is released when trees when burnt to clear land.
- Carbon in wood doesn't contribute to atmospheric pollution until it's released by burning.
- Micro-organisms feeding on bits on dead wood release carbon dioxide as a waste product of respiration.
- Carbon dioxide is released when trees when burnt to clear land.
- Less carbon dioxide taken in
- Cutting down loads of trees means that the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere during photosynthesis reduced.
- More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causes global warming which leads to climate change.
- Less biodiversity
- Biodiversity = the variety of different species in a habitat - the more species, the greater the biodiversity
- Habitats like tropical rainforests can contain a huge number of different species so when they are destroyed there is a risk of many species becoming extinct - biodiversity is reduced.
- Deforestation is the cutting down of trees.
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