Ecosystems Assessment Revision

Question 1

What is an Ecosystem?

Answer 1

The definition of an Ecosystem is the study of the environment where living things in it interact between each other and also with the non-living environment they are found within.

Question 2

Where are the World’s Tropical Rainforests?

Answer 2

The vast majority of the world’s tropical rainforests are found near or on the equator, with nearly every single one of them between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. This is because these rainforests need warm and humid climates to be able to grow in. Another noticeable trend is that most of them are close to a large body of water, which is evaporated and turned to rain, which gives the rainforest the water it needs.The only anomalie is the southern tip of the Madagascar Rainforest, which slightly pokes out of the bottom line of the tropic of Capricorn.

Question 3

Why does that rainforest have such a high level of Biodiversity?

Answer 3

There are many reasons why the rainforest accommodates around 50% of the globe’s biodiversity, whilst only cover 2% of the Earth’s land. They can include:

• It’s conditions are primed to accommodate many different types of plant and animal species, naturally meaning that there will be more variation, resulting in higher biodiversity (temperatures around 27°-30° and up to 2m of rainfall per year).
• Organisms grow, die and decompose very quickly, meaning new life is also formed quickly, creating competition between species right from the start, meaning higher biodiversity. This can also provide a stable and reliable habitat for longer living species too.
• There is no need for plants and animals to adapt, as there are no new seasons, meaning their habits are the same all year round, making their life easier.
• There is lots of bacteria in the soil, along with good decomposers, giving nutrients to the soil for the animals and plants to feed off.

Question 4

Why does Vegetation adapt to the Rainforest Climate

Answer 4

Animals and vegetation also have to adapt to survive in the rainforest for different reasons and in different ways. This then gets them the upper hand over competing species and helps them to survive in the rainforest for as long as possible too. Examples of Tropical Rainforest Adaptations are Epiphytes, Lianas, Buttress Roots, Emergents (Trees), Drip Tip Leaves, The Canopy Layer, Shrubs and Dark Forest Floor Leaves

Question 5

Adaptations: Epiphytes

Answer 5

• Reach the sunlight quickly and do so with competition
• They are non parasitic, so they get their nutrients from their air (water vapour) and pools of water where dead organic material is rotting down

Question 6

Adaptations: Lianas

Answer 6

• Some are also known as vines, and are extremely quick growing, meaning they can get up to reach the sunlight quick enough
• They do not use their energy to grow in girth (width), but use their energy to grow in length and to grow upwards to the light. They can do this, as they are reliant on the tree that they are growing up for support

Question 7

Adaptations: Buttress Root

Answer 7

• Buttress Roots combat the infertile soil that lays below the tree, as most of the nutrients gets leached out due the extortionate amount of rainfall in this biome.
• To combat this, the Buttress Roots are higher up the tree, so they’re able to have shallower roots, meaning their closer to the surface where all the decomposers and bacteria are, so they can get the nutrients in that way
• They are also up to 10 meters wide, meaning the tree is still fully supported, especially if it is a tall one.

Question 8

Adaptations: Emergents (Trees)

Answer 8

• Emergents are adapted so they can reach right up, all the way through the dense canopy to get light. As a result, these giants can reach up to 65 meters tall
• These trees are slow growing, but ultimately in the end, are able to reach to the top of the rainforest, especially if it is a hardwood.

Question 9

Adaptations: Drip Tip Leaves

Answer 9

• Drip Tip leaves are designed so that they have a drip tip at the end of the leaf, helping it to drain water off it’s waxy cuticle, allowing to photosynthesise better
• Due to the annual average of 2m of rainfall, this amount, if water was to stay on the leaf, would make it grow mouldy, meaning it would decompose and die.
• Another thing that helps the drip tip, is that it’s leaf it pointed down, meaning water will drain down onto the soil and probably then into it’s own plant’s roots, where it can be sent back up to the leaf to grow

Question 10

Adaptations: The Canopy Layer

Answer 10

• The canopy is adapted to get the trees away from the waterlogged conditions on the deep and murky forest floor.
• It reaches up to 30m-40m high and then is able to absorb any kind of sunlight, which would be impossible to do on the forest floor.
• This dense batch of trees also avoid the competition for space, although they compete with each other, on the forest floor, where things are a lot more intense

Question 11

Adaptations: Minimal Shrub Growth

Answer 11

• There is minimal shrub growth in the rainforest, due to the amount of space there is available.
• They grow with waxy and jagged leaves, to put up a defence to animals trying to consume them
• Some are carnivorous plants or are insectivorous, meaning that they can eat small insects of animals, as this will help replace the lack of nutrients found on the forest floor

Question 12

Adaptations: Dark, Large Leaves on Forest Floor

Answer 12

• This means that these leaves will have a lot more chlorophyll in them, as they are a darker shade of green, allowing them to convert any light that reaches them into sufficient amounts of energy.
• This is what will keep these plants alive, as only 2% of sunlight manages to reach the forest floor, which is very precious

Question 13

Animal Adaptations:

Answer 13

Some of them include:

• Big Feet (stops them sinking into the ground)
• Height (Can reach food on higher branches and higher trees where there is less competition)
• Darker Skin (Protects their skin from the hot and harmful sun)
• Camouflage (Can hide and blend in with their surroundings from predators)
• Sight (Spots predators and prey in dense vegetation)
• Ears (Can listen for predators and prey in noisy surroundings)
• Long Tail (Helps animals scale and climb, or even swing from trees)
• Waterproof feather/fur (stops animal from getting wet)
• Claws/Long Fingers (good for climbing and gripping, as well as hunting and defending)
• Wings (So the animal can reach food up really high)
• Tough Skin (stops the animal from getting pierced by thorns)
• Long Arms (to wrap around trees)

Question 14

Why is the Rainforest So Valuable?

Answer 14

• 75% of cancer treatment comes from the rainforest (Periwinkle - Child Leukaemia; Digtalis - Heart Failure; Chinchina Tree- Heart Problems)
• 150 prescription drugs in the UK originate in some way from the TRF
• 50% of Ghana’s forest has been cut for Ghana’s cocoa cash crop
• Cattle Ranching (S. America) is responsible for 80% of deforestation where fields are created to rear cattle
• 50% of all packaged supermarket products have palm oil in them, as rainforest is deforested for their plantations

Question 15

Who uses the Rainforests?

Answer 15

Really, almost everyone in the world uses the rainforest in one way or another, in the fact that they have either visited there or bought products from there. As a result of too many people using the rainforest, deforestation is becoming a larger and larger problem.

Some examples of people using the rainforests are: The Indigenous Tribes, Slash and Burn Farmers, Exports and TNC’s and the Growing Population and Global and Demand.

Question 16

How the Indigenous Tribes use the rainforest

Answer 16

• Houses are made out of rainforest resources such as wood and leaves
• They hunt their food in the rainforest, like moneys and antelopes for meat, with fish from the rivers and they gather yams, nuts and berries, as well as plants for medicine
• They hunt giant forest hog and sell it to other people in the region for items and utensils
• They worship the forest and think of it as sacred and call it father of mother, whilst making sacrifices and offering for protection

Question 17

How the Slash and Burn Farmers use the rainforest

Answer 17

• This tactic of farming is still used by over 500 million landless farmers around the world
• The farmers clear small areas by cutting and burning trees, making sure the ash from the burning adds nutrients to the soil
• They plant crops and farm food for around 5 years before it becomes infertile and then they move onto a new area, and the forest then starts to regenerate

Problems with this are that there are too many farmers doing this (as poverty rises) and each of them are taking more land than they are meant to, resulting in more land being lost.

Question 18

How the Commercial Exports and TNC’s use the rainforest (Commercial Exploitation)

Answer 18

-Commercial Businesses clear large areas of rainforest for:
>Commercial Farming for Beef or to grow fodder crops for the cattle
>Commercial Crops such as Palm Oil or Cocoa
>Mining metal ores (copper and iron)
>Farm timber for paper and furniture e.c.t
>Dams and Reservoirs for renewable and energy and profit

• This can range differently around the world. For example Cattle Ranching and Subsistence Farming account for 60% and 30% of the Amazon’s rainforest loss, whereas in Borneo and Indonesia, large Palm Oil Plantations are replacing their rainforests.
• These Exports and TNC’s provide jobs, income for governments, but the natural ecosystems and rainforests are being lost as a result

Question 19

How the Growing Population and changes to the Global Economy use the Rainforest

Answer 19

• The global population is rising rapidly, meaning there is more demand than ever for resources
• The middle class is becoming a lot more wealthier worldwide, meaning people can afford to buy more (most of this is happening in South America and Asia)
• Companies are getting bigger and bigger and span across the globe as production costs and workers are found to be cheaper
• Developing countries sell all of these rainforest products to try and raise money to pay off all of their debt, with this becoming a bigger and bigger problem.
• Developing countries also need resources to expand and grow as an estimated 25% of urban population live in informal settlements, meaning that 1.8bn people live in bad conditions, shacks or in slums.

Question 20

Why does Cattle Ranching cause deforestation

Answer 20

The types of farming that are destructive around the world vary from country to country. In Brazil, the cause of deforestation is mainly down to Cattle Ranches (60%). The thing that makes Cattle Ranching destructive to the rainforest, is that the area of rainforest is totally cleared to make space for the animals to graze and grow, and then the farmers will kill the animals and sell the meat. Overtime, more and more people have adopted this tactic and more of the rainforest is lost as a result of it.

Question 21

Why does Palm Oil cause deforestation

Answer 21

In places such as Indonesia and Borneo, deforestation has mainly occurred due to them being replaced with Palm Oil Plantations. Growing Palm Oil Plantations or just growing one highly profitable product in bulk also decreases the amount of biodiversity in the area and essentially kills the ecosystem and all of it’s inhabitants, also meaning that species could go extinct, even further harming the Rainforest, but also everything else around it. This effectively makes large amounts of the rainforest disappear, just to clear the space for this to take place.

Question 22

Why does Iron Ore Mines cause deforestation

Answer 22

Farming isn’t the only thing that rainforests are useful for, if there is evidence to that there are large amounts if ores buried in the ground, rainforests will be chopped down and the ground will be dug up to start to wield the resources. For example, the Carajas Complex in the Amazon is the largest iron ore mine on the planet with 3,000 men toiling at all times, just so the iron can be farmed and sold, and because of this, the area of the rainforest is gone.

Question 23

Why does Timber cause deforestation

Answer 23

Timber is also another big part when it comes to rainforest deforestation, as trees are cut down for the wood to be made into furniture or paper (as well as other things), which means the rainforests will need to be cleared further to make roads and points to get all the trees and resources that are farmed to get processed and manufactured, and then exported.

Question 24

Why does Urbanisation cause deforestation

Answer 24

Some parts of Rainforests are chopped down for Economic Development, as some developing, which are still expanding don’t have enough open space to facilitate their people in so the Rainforests are cut to build to be replaced with rods cities and housing; another example of this in a national scale. As well as this, rainforests are also removed to accommodate the space for local energy sources for the country, which can be renewable. For example, the Tucuri Dam was built into the Amazon, using water from the Amazon River to generate energy to the growing Brazilian population. However it then ended up flooding 1750km^2 of tropical rainforest.

Question 25

How does Deforestation affect the Climate

Answer 25

• When trees are cut and burnt, carbon Dioxide is emitted, when trees are one of the few things that take this out of the atmosphere and replace it with oxygen. The more carbon there is in the atmosphere, they worse Climate Change will get, making weather more unpredictable (usually warmer and wetter)
• Global air circulation is also prone to changing due to deforestation, which changes air patterns in the Pacific Ocean, which can create warm dry air in certain areas

Question 26

How does Deforestation affect the Atmosphere

Answer 26

• The Atmosphere is also affected, due to the emissions of Carbon in the atmosphere, speeding the process of Global Warming
• The Atmosphere’s cloud formation will as be affected, as there will be less water to transpire off the leaves of the trees and more sediment in rivers, meaning it will be a lot harder for water to be evaporated, meaning less clouds and less precipitation. This in time will also result in the sun appearing as hotter, drier and brighter.

Question 27

How does Deforestation affect the Soil

Answer 27

• With no trees, interception is reduced and rainfall hits the soil surface directly, causing the soil to erode. This also means, there is much less infiltration of water into the soil, as there will be no roots to store it in, leading the soil to get fully saturated quicker.
• Surface run-off will increase as a result, which means water can get into river channels faster, making flooding a lot more prone and frequent leading river water to get dirty and contaminated.
• Lastly, with no forest, the soil dries out totally so overall evaporation is reduced which in future will mean fewer clouds less rain and a drier climate to live in.

Question 28

How does Deforestation affect the Nutrients Cycle

Answer 28

The nutrients cycle includes:

• Dead leaves and animal waste falling all year round
• Decomposers releasing the nutrients from them
• The soil down there will be poor because the nutrients don’t get a chance to sink in
• The roots quickly take up the nutrients again
• The nutrients help the vegetation to grow around it.

If deforestation was to take over, then the nutrients cycle would ultimately fail and the rainforest would then be reduced to minimal shrubs and barren land.

Question 30

How does Deforestation affect Biodiversity

Answer 30

• A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than is found in all Europe’s rivers
• A 25 hectare plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain over 700 species of trees (double the total found in the UK). This same location may contain 1500 species of plants, more than 5 times the amount than in the UK.
• A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of bird than in Europe
• A single tree in Peru was found to harbour 43 different species of ants (a total that equates around the entire ant species in the British Isles).
• The number of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Rainforests cover 5% of the Earth’s surface but contain over half of the species of plants and animals worldwide

All of this means that if the rainforest is deforested, all of this wildlife and biodiversity will be totally lost forever.

Question 31

How does Deforestation causes Social Problems

Answer 31

Deforestation causes Social issues too as people’s daily lives will be affected with climate change becoming a rising issue as a bi-product of deforestation. Studies also show that 70% of cancer leukaemia medicine comes from the rainforest, with 150 prescribed drugs having rainforest ingredients in them already. Only 10% of the plants in the rainforest have been researched, so if it were all to go now, then who knows what medicines and cures could’ve been missed. Indigenous Tribes would be totally destroyed is the rainforest was gone, as that is the way they live, as they live in it, off it and depend on it, so they would be completely wiped out, as the rest of the 10 million of them which didn’t survived to make it down to the 200,000 we have left. These points all link back to how people social lives are directly impacted.

Question 32

How does Deforestation causes Economic Problems

Answer 32

Deforestation also causes economic problems in developing countries especially, as everyone will loose out on rainforest products, meaning other countries without rainforest products will be deprived of things such as fruits, sugars, spices, flavourings and more. This is not just bad for these deprived countries, it’s also bad for the sellers, as they will now not be able to generate income off the rainforest, which they relied on so much in the past to pay debt to bigger countries.

Question 33

How does Deforestation causes Environmental Problems

Answer 33

The main victim of deforestation, is quite obviously going to be the environment. The climate, the atmosphere, the water cycle, nutrients cycle, the soil and the world’s biodiversity will all be destroyed and with all of this, the world simply won’t be able to function fully. Examples include fire, droughts, extreme heat, lack of soil fertility and much, much more.

Question 35

How is Ecotourism Sustainable

Socially, Environmentally and Economically

Answer 35

Ecotourism is sustainable way of developing the rainforest in many ways. Socially, it helps people that are living in and around the area of this attraction as it is a way for them to go and experience the rainforests themselves, which is a once in a lifetime experience and educates people on how we can improve environmentally. The idea also gives people jobs as tour guides, builders to set it all up and more. This still manages to benefit the area environmentally too, as money is invested into the rainforest to conserve this part if the land. Tourism that takes place is minimal and doesn’t have an affect on the surroundings either, with all waste being disposed of ethically. Finally, Ecotourism is economically beneficial, as funds are gained due to the attraction being sold and people having to pay for the experience. This money can be spent into furtherly protecting and enhancing the rainforest, or could be given back to the government to improve people’s lives socially.

Question 36

How is Agro-forestry Sustainable

Socially, Environmentally and Economically

Answer 36

Agro-forestry is where trees and crops are planted at the same time so that the tree roots bind the soil and the leaves protect it from heavy rain. This is good for people socially, as they are creating a better and more sustainable area and surroundings to live in and can still farm resources for themselves through selective deforestation, where they can make their money economically to save for themselves or again, to re-invest into the rainforest, which is made by them selling their products that they have sustainably farmed, whilst still putting back into the rainforest more than they’re taking out. This also is positively impacting the Environment and encourages the rainforest to develop and re-grow, therefore, meaning that this technique is sustainable and should be used heavily by locals in the future

Question 37

How are Conservation Swaps Sustainable

Socially, Environmentally and Economically

Answer 37

Conservation Swaps are a vey good way and example of countries helping other countries doing better things and making better decisions as a result. This is done by a country that’s owed debt by another, allowing the debt of a percentage of it, in return for them investing that exact amount into growing their wildlife and rainforests. For example, Brazil owed America money, but then America would decide to scrap part of the debt, on the condition of Brazil conserving their rainforest. This then means the rainforests are protected, allowing species to thrive, trees to inhale carbon dioxide, and therefore allowing the social factors, such as the people, to live better lives and see more rare and exotic animals too, as a result of the economic pressure being released. In this situation, Brazil have benefitted Environmentally, Socially and Economically, all from an amount of debt that America didn’t desperately need anyway. This shows that Conservations swaps are the way to go when trying to find ways of sustaining and regrowing the rainforests.

Question 38

Why are a variety of approaches to developing the rainforest are needed for it to be sustainable?

Answer 38

A very wide variety of approaches are needed for developing the rainforest, as the most ways there are to do it, the more of them can be implemented at once, result in quicker rainforest regeneration. Another point is that, if there were only limited ways on how to do it, then it wouldn’t be very effective, due to the same process happening again and again and again. New and innovative ways of regrowing the rainforests can be found especially in Cameroon’s Kilum Ijim development, made by Kew Gardens and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, where there are areas divided into no conservation areas and limited conservation areas, with places for selective logging, afforestation, extraction reserves, ecotourism and agroforestry. This has managed to increase the forest by 8% after it lost half of it from years 1958 to 1986.

If we as a goal are trying to conserve and regrow our rainforest in sustainable ways, setting up places and schemes such as the one in the Kilum Ijim forest is definitely the way to go.

Question 39

Which Sustainable ways can the Rainforest be developed

Answer 39

There are many different ways in which the Rainforest can be developed sustainably. Some of the ways in which this can be done include:

• Sustainable Farming
• Selective Logging and Sustainable Logging
• The creation of National Parks
• Deforestation Monitoring
• Conservation Swaps
• Ecotourism