Deforestation is the process of clearing trees and land from a forest. This is what is happening in the Amazon Rainforest. Other forms of deforestation can be setting fires to clear land faster, logging, and cattle ranching. An estimated 13 million hectares of forests were lost each year between 2000 and 2010 due to deforestation. This threatens the wildlife living in the forest. 70% of Earth's land plants and animals live in the forests, and if deforestation continues the animals will have no choice to either leave the area and soon die later because of habitat loss and have no place to live or they will die there while the forest and their homes are being destroyed. Animals leaving their habitats causes animals to be more vulnerable to hunting and lead to more endangered species and threatens Earth`s biodiversity. More than 50% of species are declining because of deforestation.
Deforestation causes forest degradation. Forest degradation happens when changes within the forest negatively affect the structure or function of the stand or site, and thereby lower the capacity to supply products and/or ecosystem services. Forest degradation creates less resilient and less productive forests and in some countries, it can be nearly as harmful as deforestation. The trees of the rainforest that provide shelter for some species also provide the canopy that regulates the temperature, a necessity for many others. Its removal through deforestation would allow a more drastic temperature variation from day to night, much like a desert, which could prove fatal for current inhabitants.
Deforestation also affects medical research and local residents who rely on the plants and animals in the forest for hunting and medicine. Humans may be at risk of acquiring diseases from the animals moving out from their destroyed habitats from deforestation. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, links a rise in disease to reductions in large mammals and the consequential colonization of deforested areas by rodent populations harboring pathogens.
Deforestation causes forest degradation. Forest degradation happens when changes within the forest negatively affect the structure or function of the stand or site, and thereby lower the capacity to supply products and/or ecosystem services. Forest degradation creates less resilient and less productive forests and in some countries, it can be nearly as harmful as deforestation. The trees of the rainforest that provide shelter for some species also provide the canopy that regulates the temperature, a necessity for many others. Its removal through deforestation would allow a more drastic temperature variation from day to night, much like a desert, which could prove fatal for current inhabitants.
Deforestation also affects medical research and local residents who rely on the plants and animals in the forest for hunting and medicine. Humans may be at risk of acquiring diseases from the animals moving out from their destroyed habitats from deforestation. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, links a rise in disease to reductions in large mammals and the consequential colonization of deforested areas by rodent populations harboring pathogens.