Human Interactions - Deforestation

Authors Note: In this science piece I really worked on incorporating human interactions, deforestation and soil erosion. I really enjoyed working on this paper because I learned so much about how actions of humans can effect any environment even if the action didn't take place there.

People impact ecosystems every day, whether it’s a positive involvement or a negative. Our population has a great effect on the earth’s environment. Deforestation is just one of the many ways humans are affecting the ecosystems, today. The impact of deforestation has not only affected the energy flow, it has changed the way that the ecosystem survives.

A fully flourishing forest can hold millions of wild animals, some not even discovered by man. Deforestation can take an abundance  of life that is contained in a forest and completely destroy all of the life. In that last fifty years, 17% of the Amazon forest vanished due to forest conversion for cattle ranching. "Every day, an estimated 100 plant and animal species are lost to deforestation.  A conservative estimate of the current extinction rate indicates that about 27,000 species a year are being lost," according to the National Wildlife Federation. All the small losses that occur because of deforestation start to add up and in the end much of wildlife is slipping from our hands.

When one aspect of the ecosystem changes everything else has to adjust. The loss of animals in forests due to deforestation has already effected the environment. The energy flow is  a cycle and when one element is decreased or increased the whole cycle is affected. Every biome has producers, consumers, decomposers, and inorganic materials.  Producers would be plants and trees. Your consumers would be the animals that eat the producers. Decomposers are animals that eat other dead animals. Like if a rabbit gets hit by a car decomposers are the bugs or insects that dissect that animal till the rest is left for the soil. The process of an animal decaying into the soil is creating an inorganic material.

Producers provide for the consumers, because the animals eat the food from producers. When the consumers die the decomposers are provided for when they eat what’s left of the consumers body. After the decomposers are done with the consumer’s body it will slowly but surely disintegrate in to the soil creating an inorganic material.  When deforestation occurs it affects the energy flow in a negative matter.

Cutting down trees reduces the number of producers; it lessens the amount of consumers. Decomposers are also affected because they have less dead animals to eat. This means that when there is less consumers disintegrating in the soil, our soil starts to lose its inorganic material resulting in soil erosion.

Soil erosion is a byproduct of deforestation and it is a major environmental issue in our country. Trees play the role of a blanket to America’s soil, they cover and protect soil. When there are no trees to protect the soil, it becomes damaged.                                            

When soil erodes it effects more than the ecosystems that it take place in. This is called a secondary effect. Once trees are cut down from a forest the roots are removed and so is the tightness of the soil. Roots of trees and vegetation keep the soil safe. When it rains the roots maintain the soil in one area. When the soil has nothing to keep the tightness runoff occurs. Runoff occurs when it rains very hard in an area where there is no trees or plantation but contains much soil. The sediment then runs off into near rivers, streams, and lakes will slowly shallow the bodies of water. This is a perfect example of a secondary effect to an ecosystem. Deforestation takes place in  forests but it can affect lakes, rivers, and streams. When you change one part of the ecosystem everything has to adjust and a lot of times not it a positive way.

Deforestation has swept the earth causing harm to many ecosystems. Global warming and
 pollution are heated and debatable topics but we need to fix our eyes on a crisis that surrounds us. Deforestation is a concern a lot of people are unaware of. We caused this issue to the environment so it’s our duty to repair the damage we created.