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| Deforestation | |||||||||||||||||
| Deforestation is the loss of forests mainly due to human related causes. Agriculture, urban sprawl, unsustainable forestry practices, mining, and petroleum exploration all contribute to human caused deforestation. Natural deforestation may be caused by tsunamis, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, glaciation and desertification, or the process by which an area becomes a desert. | |||||||||||||||||
| Deforestation changes the hydrologic cycle. This alters the amount of water in the soil and groundwater and the moisture in the atmosphere. Forests support a large amount of biodiversity as well, providing valuable habitat for wildlife. Forests also help house medicinal conservation.
Shrinking forests lessens the landscape's capacity to intercept, retain and transport precipitation. Instead of trapping precipitation, which then seeps to groundwater systems, deforested areas become sources of surface water runoff. According to one preliminary study, in deforested north and northwest China, the average annual precipitation decreased by one third between the 1950s and the 1980s. |
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| Although deforestation may give some animals new habitats that require them, there are many cons that come with deforestation. The quicker that surface water transports, this can translate into flash flooding and more localized floods than would occur with the forest cover. Deforestation also decreases evapotranspiration, which lessens atmospheric moisture. | |||||||||||||||||
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| In order to help with the problem of deforestation, people can manage forest lands sustainable to maintain both forest cover and provide a biodegradable renewable resource. Forests are also important stores of organic carbon, and forests can extract carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air. Forests are also valued for their aesthetic beauty and as a cultural resource and tourist attraction. Therefore, conservations should be contructed to maintain forests. | |||||||||||||||||
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Deforestation/deforestation_3.html |
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