Deforestation: What really happens

Photography: Courtesy of U.S Forest Service

Forests make up a large terrestrial portion of The world, but right now, I'm going to focus on North and South America. If you live in either a country or suburban area, you may have witnessed once an abundantly green and luscious area cleared for commercial or residential purposes. It's small, typical and perceived to have little to no impact on the environment. But like I mentioned before, even the smallest changes to the environment impact all the big parts. But let's dig a little deeper and broader. Let's head to Brazil with one of the most amazing tropical rainforest, rich with biodiversity of species that are found no where else.

What happens when 100k acres of forest are clear-cut for agricultural purposes? What happens to the soil, the animals, the people?

Well you might say that the people benefit (and the people represent the economy as Brazil is a developing country). But what happens when the tropical soils are so acidic that plants grown there cannot last for more than a season or two. So what's next? Everyday, 100+ thousand acres were deforested to support the expansion of agriculture. But the same soil problem occurred creating a vicious and detrimental cycle to us and our surrounding environment.

Here's a little science for you:

1) Forests are like gigantic carbon sinks that lead to a quarter of the world's annual carbon dioxide     emissions.

2) Nutrient cycling. Vital to plant growth and tropical forest survival especially. Shrubs, tree roots, water and air all play a key role in soil nutrient cycling. Ammonium and carbon cycle through the tree roots, facilitated by shrubs, and in the air for a short periods of time, then repeat. You can guess that all of the dead and decaying organic material (material composed of carbon) is what helps the flow of the carbon cycle in this biome. So, like I said, everything is vital--even the dead stuff.

3) When forests are clear-cut for commercial use or affected by natural disaster, all of the soil carbon releases as atmospheric carbon and makes its way up to the sky, facilitating global warming.

4) Rising temperatures then increase the rate of  the decomposition of organic material and can cause plants to lose their "carbon-capturing prowess." Heated soils= increased tree growth and carbon storage, which you can assume why that might be bad if a plot of land is cleared.

5) Sustainable plant growth is vital to forest survival.

Enough with the science. This is just one example of how global warming is impacted via a positive feedback loop. As always, there's more to come so stay tuned.