Tropical Forests Affected by Habitat Fragmentation Store Less Biomass and Carbon Dioxide

This post is by Kaegan Perry but his account is malfunctioning so I am posting it for him...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091209113840.htm

Our current rate of deforestation may seem pretty bad, but recent studies suggest its actually a lot worse. Besides simply cutting down trees, we fragment forests, and are rapidly discovering that this fragmentation results in fewer numbers of trees than the total of how many we cut down. The combined biomass of large numbers of fragmented forests, when compared to a cohesive forest of the same size, is found to be forty percent less. Critics say that this loss in biomass isn’t as bad is it is portrayed to be, and that it is only temporary. The researchers who concluded that this side effect of deforestation was real, however, believe that it is much more permanently damaging than these critics predict. We can not afford to lose much more of these valuable forests, because of their ability to sequester large quantities of carbon dioxide, and due to the fact that twenty percent of Earth’s carbon dioxide levels results from their deforestation.

Tropical forests are crucial to humanity’s existence. They are the regulators of carbon dioxide emissions, which are largely responsible for earth’s changing climate. Global warming will only increase as forested areas decrease. It is critical that the government step in to regulate their rapid deforestation, in order to preserve a prosperous future for the human race. Without stricter regulation and a better understanding of the issue, we are doomed to failure. More research must me done in order to discover ways to mitigate this problem, whether through legislature or environmental activism. We have reached a point where we cannot afford to blindly harvest resources without first considering the consequences of our actions. If we continue to log our limited forests, we will lose biodiversity, aesthetic beauty, and our livelihood. We depend upon other species to survive, and as more die off we lose their unique abilities and benefits. Ecotourism ravaged forest environments will suffer greatly, and thus the economies of local communities. Our quality of life will decrease greatly in the advent of global warming, and we might even go extinct ourselves. It is for all these reasons that we must stop our deforestation, especially what fragments the Earth’s forests.