Environmental impacts on forests

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

11/21/2008

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Ecology & environment

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Summary :

Introduction.
Effect on soil.
1. The sustainable productive potential.
2. The observed boost in agricultural production following a forest cover.
Effect on water.
1. The effect of trees
2. Transpiration.
3. The myth that forests act like a sponge.
4. The lowering of water tables.
Effect on air.
1. The process of photosynthesis.
2. The role of wood products in the global carbon cycle.
Effect on wildlife and people.
1. Main difference between forests and other terrestrial ecosystems.
2. The oceans - the base of the biological pyramid.
Conclusion.

Abstract

There is considerable debate over deﬁnitions for the word 'forest' and even for 'tree.' Most vegetation types fall clearly into the categories of forest or nonforest, but there is dispute at the margins. A similar debate rages over the classiﬁcation of forests into natural and artiﬁcial types. On the one hand, we could say that totally natural forests do not exist. There is probably not a single hectare of the earth's surface that has not been modiﬁed to some extent by human activity. In some parts of the world, hominids have been a part of the ecosystem for perhaps a million years, often using ﬁre or browsing mammals. Peoples have introduced new species or eliminated species from every land mass, and have even modiﬁed the air (which provides a tree with its most important nutrient by weight - carbon). On the other hand, even a 'monocultural' and monoclonal plantation contains a surprising variety of adventitious species and cannot be said to be entirely artiﬁcial.