Without vegetation holding the soil in place, it is blown away and transported through wind and water erosion. What is deforestation? 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. 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. What is deforestation and its causes and effects? When these resources are lost, animals become weaker, more vulnerable to diseases and often succumb to starvation. Deforestation represents one of the largest issues in global land use. In humans, the virus causes hemorrhagic feverthe same kind of illness triggered by Ebola virusand in Liberia killed 36 percent of infected people. Human population and development activities affect the rate of deforestation in biodiversity hotspots. Not all deforestation is intentional. Many factors related to cutting down trees contribute to driving species to extinction. Its an all-too-common pattern seen across the tropics: to make room for crops, forests come down. Deforestation is the clearing of forests to obtain lumber and provide space for either agricultural zones or urban development. 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. Virus-carrying rodents have also been spotted in deforested areas in Panama, Bolivia, and in Brazil. https://www.britannica.com/science/deforestation, Academia - Deforestation: Causes, Effects and Control Strategies, LiveScience - Deforestation: Facts, Causes and Effects, deforestation - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), deforestation - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Mexican avocados shipped for Super Bowl named in complaint. A severe slump in rainfall in 2015 meant salinity levels rocketed in the bay, with the water becoming twice as salty in the ocean. Only about 1 million square km (390,000 square miles) of cropland are in areas that would have been cool boreal forests, as in Scandinavia and northern Canada. The breakdown of the natural chain of life was so starkly apparent to Floridians that it became a battleground in the midterm elections. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners. In addition, each year fires burn an area about half as large as the areas that are cleared. As a registered user, you can customize maps, save them, and share them with your friends. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Thats like losing an area the size of Portugal every two years. 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. Indigenous communities who live in forests and depend on them to sustain their life bear the brunt of impacts from deforestation. Spillovers of infectious diseases to people is more likely to occur in the tropics because overall wildlife and pathogen diversity is higher, he adds. 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. The main cause of man-made erosion is agriculture, followed by construction and mining. This, in turn, contributes to destroying forests, intensifying deforestation even more. 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. Trees are known for their capacity to absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. It was the first known emergence of Nipah virus in people, which has since caused a string of recurrent outbreaks across Southeast Asia. Sign in with your username (email address) and password. The commercial palm oil industry rapidly expanded in the late 20th century and led to thedeforestationof significant swaths of Indonesia and Malaysia as well as large areas in Africa. The scientific consensus on deforestation is that it intensifies climate change at a dramatic rate. However, the bacterium is also found in the white-footed mouse, which happens to thrive in forests fragmented by human settlements, MacDonald says. 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. 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? Aggressive efforts to rewild and reforest are already showing success. Eighty percent of Earths land animals and plants live in forests, and deforestation threatens species including the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, and many species of birds. One way some tropical countries are reducing deforestation is through participation in the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. 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. Ecohealth Alliance researchers have proposed that containing diseases could be considered a new ecosystem service, that is, a benefit that humans freely gain from natural ecosystems, just like carbon storage and pollination. Deforestation affects not only a forest and its immediate surroundings but also the atmosphere, which in turn spreads across the biosphere -- all the planet's ecosystems and everything in them. 2022 - 2023 Times Mojo - All Rights Reserved Deforestation is the purposeful cleaning of forest land for other uses. We need trees for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale and the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that human activities emit. Not according to biology or history. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Its hard to generalize about mosquito ecology, which varies depending on species and region, Vittor stresses. When forests are wiped out, the land becomes exposed, leaving it vulnerable to being washed or blown away by elements. All Rights Reserved. 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. What are three causes of desertification? Indigenous communities who live in forests and depend on them to sustain their life bear the brunt of impacts from deforestation. Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Climate change has accelerated the rate of ice loss across the continent. Theyre also afraid that the next serious pandemic could emerge from our worlds forests. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription. This isnt the time to give up.. Plants create oxygen and absorb greenhouse gases. WebHere is a detailed discussion of how deforestation affects climate change, animals and humans. During the mid-20th century, Florida lost more than seven million acres of forest and herbaceous wetlands to development. About half of eastern North America lay deforested in the 1870s, almost all of it having been deforested at least once since European colonization in the early 1600s. Dead fish in Florida following the 2018 toxic red tide. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Between 2003 and 2015, on average, they estimated that a 10 percent yearly increase in forest loss led to a 3 percent rise in malaria cases. In Brazil, while control efforts have dramatically reduced malaria transmission in the pastbringing 6 million cases a year in the 1940s down to just 50,000 by the 1960scases have since been steadily rising again in parallel with rapid forest clearing and expansion of agriculture. Deforestation weakens this process, leading to irregular rainfall patterns including drought and flooding. Trees and their roots provide the soil with an anchor, as well as shelter from the wind and rain. The numbers are grim, but many conservationists see reasons for hope. Mosquitoes arent the only animals that can transmit deadly scourges to people. Malariawhich kills over a million annually due to infection by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by mosquitoeshas long been suspected of going hand in hand with deforestation. This erosion will carve out caves and crevices. Starved of fresh water from a reworking of its natural plumbing further north and menaced by seas rising due to climate change, the Everglades and its adjoining bay are teetering at the edge of existential crisis. In 2014, for example, the Ebola virus killed over 11,000 people in West Africa after fruit bats transmitted the disease to a toddler who was playing near trees where bats were roosting. 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. And consumers can help stop it. Flash floods, rivers and streams, slowly but surely erode rock. The problem is were just not getting enough water, Davis said. The closer humans are to animals, the greater the opportunity for zoonotic spillover, where a pathogen jumps from animal to human. EarthTalk is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). 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. 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. Soil in deforested areas is exposed to more sunlight, which increases the soil temperature and oxidizes the carbon in the soil to carbon dioxide. The increase of mining on tropical forests is furthering damage due to the rising demand and high mineral prices. Copyright 2023 NatureServe. Florida has even thrown itself into a legal battle to halt a controversial oil drilling project in the north-eastern reaches of the Everglades. 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. This practice threatens our environment, from altering the climate and various ecosystems to compromising the existence of millions of humans and animals. Loss of Habitat. 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. Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey. 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. The Global Forest Watch made it clear: protecting tropical rainforests is essential. You might also like: 12 Major Companies Responsible for Deforestation. deforestation, the clearing or thinning of forests by humans. Figure 1: Tropical primary forest loss between 2002 and 2020. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Get focused newsletters especially designed to be concise and easy to digest. 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. As more and more forest is cleared around the world, scientists fear that the next deadly pandemic could emerge from what lives within them. Updates? An iceberg melts in the waters off Antarctica. While deforestation may occur locally, its effect is global. Deforestation also affects nearby rivers, streams, and other water sources as nutrients from the soil are removed through leaching, which happens when water (e.g., As more and more soil is lost, the remaining soil is poorly suited to retaining moisture, leading to desertification. 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. Notice how turbid and brown the water is, Davis said, standing up on his skiff and peering into the bay. The tourism industry, worth about $67bn annually to Florida, trembled. For example, in one year of the study, an additional 618-square-mile (1,600-square-kilometer) patch of cleared forestthe equivalent of nearly 300,000 football fieldswas linked to an additional 10,000 cases of malaria. Diseases that are transmitted through insects, such as malaria and Lyme disease, are more common in open spaces with more sunlight exposure. Along with Indigenous tribes, animals are some of the biggest victims of deforestation. This Tribe Thinks So. deforestation, the clearing or thinning of forests by humans. FloridaStock Habitat Loss Featured Image. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 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. Destroying forests alters weather patterns, destroys habitats, and negatively affects rural communities, leading to food insecurity and causing irreversible damage to entire ecosystems. Forests can also help reduce the impacts of flood from storms by blocking and slowing down the flow of runoff. As trees are cut down and burnt, the carbon they contain is released into the atmosphere. The effects of soil erosion go beyond the loss of fertile land. 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. Some of this replanting is done to replenish logging areas for future exploitation, and some replanting is done as a form of ecological restoration, with the reforested areas made into protected land. 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. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? Stopping deforestation before it reaches a critical point will play a key role in avoiding the next zoonotic pandemic. Laden with chemicals from nearby agriculture and warmed in temperatures that are climbing as the climate heats up, the water is the perfect spawning ground for toxic blue-green algal blooms. (How deforestation is leading to more infectious diseases in humans.). Environmentalists are optimistic that the initial success of REDD in Brazil bodes well for reducing deforestation in other parts of the tropics as well.