why is deforestation dangerous?

Answer 1

Deforestation results from removal of trees without sufficient reforestation and usually results in a significant loss of biodiversity. There are many causes, ranging from slow forest degradation to sudden and catastrophic wildfires. Deforestation can be the result of the deliberate removal of forest cover for agriculture or urban development, or it can be a consequence of grazing animals, wild or domesticated. The combined effect of livestock herding and fires can be a major cause of deforestation in dry areas. In addition to the direct effects brought about by forest removal, indirect effects caused by edge effects and habitat fragmentation can greatly magnify the effects of deforestation.

While tropical rainforest deforestation has attracted most attention, tropical dry forests are being lost at a substantially higher rate, primarily as an outcome of slash-and-burn techniques used by shifting cultivators. Generally loss of biodiversity is highly correlated with deforestation.

Deforestation affects the amount of water in the soil and groundwater and the moisture in the atmosphere. Forests support considerable biodiversity, providing valuable habitat for wildlife; moreover, forests foster medicinal conservation and the recharge of aquifers. With forest biotopes being a major, irreplaceable source of new drugs (like taxol), deforestation can destroy genetic variations (such as crop resistance) irretrievably.

Shrinking forest cover lessens the landscape's capacity to intercept, retain and transport precipitation. Instead of trapping precipitation, which then percolates to groundwater systems, deforested areas become sources of surface water runoff, which moves much faster than subsurface flows. That quicker transport of surface water can translate into flash flooding and more localized floods than would occur with the forest cover. Deforestation also contributes to decreased evapotranspiration, which lessens atmospheric moisture which in some cases affects precipitation levels downwind from the deforested area, as water is not recycled to downwind forests, but is lost in runoff and returns directly to the oceans. 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

Long-term gains can be obtained by managing 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, thus contributing to biosphere stability and probably relevant to the greenhouse effect. Forests are also valued for their aesthetic beauty and as a cultural resource and tourist attraction.

Answer 2

Deforestation is indeed a problem due to the reason that the above answered. Less Oxygen in the air and more CO2. Animals as well, need to find a new living space. It is also a problem because when you take trees out of an area with their root system, the earth has nothing to break it up, resulting in a completely different ground system, most of shich is not good for farming. In places that are rich with rain, much of the soil become clay like which can be difficult to produce decent plants.

All of this however can be aleviated if the people cutting the trees do it properly by cutting a portion and replanting right away and cutting a different area while the one area regrows. Brazil is doing it for the profit of cattle, so this is not an option for them. We should all band together and buy up as much of it as we can.

Answer 3

Well Rebecca J, deforestation can be dangerous in a lot of different ways and to a lot of different things. If you are talking about us then it could be dangerous because it contributes to global warming. Trees take carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming) out of the atmosphere and without that climates all over the world would change. also the machines that they use to cut down the trees run on large amounts of fossil fuels. Plus the plant species that are lost through deforestation could hold miraculous and countless cures to incurable diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.
If you are talking about animals then there is the loss of habitat to account for.Then there is the loss of food to account for. And there is the loss of species to account for.
Any way you look at it deforestation is dangerous.

Answer 4

Deforestation means lesser trees. The consequence? More carbon dioxide and less oxygen, because trees play a HUGE role in recycling the air that we breathe. This is just one of the many reasons why deforestation is dangerous.

Answer 5

Deforestation is dangerous because like the others said, we need oxygen to survive. simple plants can not produce enough O2. We needs trees. Also, trees are an important building material which we use everyday. And lastly thousands of species would die off, disrupting the food chain and having a definite effect.

Answer 6

Atmospheric pollution
Deforestation is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect. Trees and other plants remove carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis. Both the decay and burning of wood releases much of this stored carbon back to the atmosphere. A.J.Yeomans asserts in Priority One that overnight a stable forest releases exactly the same quantity of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Others state that mature forests are net sinks of CO2 (see Carbon dioxide sink and Carbon cycle). Deforestation caused by humans is estimated to contribute to one-third of all carbon dioxide. The water cycle is also affected by deforestation. Trees extract groundwater through their roots and release it into the atmosphere. When part of a forest is removed, the region can not hold as much water and can result in a much drier climate.

Wildlife
Some forests are rich in biological diversity. Deforestation can cause the destruction of the habitats that support this biological diversity - thus causing population shifts and extinctions. Numerous countries have developed Biodiversity Action Plans to limit clearcutting and slash and burn agricultural practices as deleterious to wildlife, particularly when endangered species are present.

Hydrologic cycle and water resources
Trees, and plants in general, affect the hydrological cycle in a number of significant ways:
their canopies intercept precipitation, some of which evaporates back to the atmosphere (canopy interception);
their litter, stems and trunks slow down surface runoff;
their roots create macropores - large conduits - in the soil that increase infiltration of water;
they reduce soil moisture via transpiration;
their litter and other organic residue change soil properties that affect the capacity of soil to store water.
As a result, the presence or absence of trees can change the quantity of water on the surface, in the soil or groundwater, or in the atmosphere. This in turn changes erosion rates and the availability of water for either ecosystem functions or human services.
The forest may have little impact on flooding in the case of large rainfall events, which overwhelm the storage capacity of forest soil if the soils are at or close to saturation.

Soil erosion
Deforestation generally increases rates of soil erosion, by increasing the amount of runoff and reducing the protection of the soil from tree litter. This can be an advantage in excessively leached tropical rain forest soils. Forestry operations themselves also increase erosion through the development of roads and the use of mechanized equipment.
China's Loess Plateau was cleared of forest millennia ago. Since then it has been eroding, creating dramatic incised valleys, and providing the sediment that gives the Yellow River its yellow color and that causes the flooding of the river in the lower reaches (hence the river's nickname 'China's sorrow').
Removal of trees does not always increase erosion rates. In certain regions of southwest US, shrubs and trees have been encroaching on grassland. The trees themselves enhance the loss of grass between tree canopies. The bare intercanopy areas become highly erodible. The US Forest Service, in Bandelier National Monument for example, is studying how to restore the former ecosystem, and reduce erosion, by removing the trees.

Landslides
Tree roots bind soil together, and if the soil is sufficiently shallow they act to keep the soil in place by also binding with underlying bedrock. Tree removal on steep slopes with shallow soil thus increases the risk of landslides, which can threaten people living nearby.

Answer 7

All plants recycle our air and take in CO2 and give us back the O2 . Without the plants we would all die.

Answer 8

It speeds up man's demise.

Answer 9

because trees and plants provide oxygen for the world so kill them kill the oxygen and kill us

Answer 10

as it leads to global warming