Forests Under Threat 2 Flashcards
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How is ecotourism better for protecting the environment?
- Ecotourism is a form of sustainable tourism that aims to have reduced environmental impact and support conservation efforts.
- Ecotourism can also provide income to indigenous populations and fund conservation efforts.
How is sustainable farming better to protect the environment?
- Selective logging is the partial felling of trees in an area, intended to reduce the environmental impact of logging as disturbances are limited. Usually, only mature trees are cut down
- Replanting reduces environmental impacts further by preventing soil erosion and ensuring carbon dioxide intake is not lost.
What is the climate like in the Taiga?
- Short, wet summers where temperatures can rise to 20’C
- Long, cold, dry winters
- Low precipitation
How are conifers adapted to the Taiga?
- They are conically (cone) shaped, which allows snow to slide off
- Conifer branches are flexible
- Conifer leaves are needle shaped, which reduces water loss by lowering the surface area.
- They are also protected with a waxy outer coating, which retains water and reduces freezing.
- Roots are wide but shallow, stopping them from reaching the frozen subsoil below while still supporting the tree.
- Evergreen trees are green all-year round, allowing them to photosynthesise whenever light is available.
How are animals adapted to the climate?- migratory.
- There are many birds that live in the taiga biome in summer, feeding on insects and berries, and breeding.
- However, the vast majority of these species have adapted to migrate south in winter to avoid the harsh temperatures.
Taiga nutrient cycle- stores and transfers.
- Small biomass store due to the limited growth and low biodiversity, especially in winter
- Fallout is large due to the needles falling off the trees, adding nutrients to the litter store
- Litter store is larger as decay is very slow in cold conditions
- Needles are left on the forest floor for months before decomposing
- Soil is nutrient deprived as decay is limited.
- Plant uptake is low as there is low biodiversity and plants only grow when there is enough water available and it is warm enough
What are the direct threats to the Taiga?- logging
- Taiga forests are deforested on a huge scale for softwood and paper production.
- Canada and Russia (which both contain taiga forests) accounted for 40% of the world’s deforestation between 2000-2013
- 8% of taiga has been lost overall.
What are the direct threats to the Taiga?- pulp and paper production
- Around 400 million tonnes of paper is used each year, the majority of which come from softwoods grown in taiga forests.
- In the pulp-and-paper process, softwood is turned into pulp and then spread thinly to make paper.
- Although thousands of sheets of paper can be made from one tree, global demand for paper is a major cause of deforestation in taiga forests.
What are the indirect threats to the Taiga?- exploitation of minerals.
Past mining efforts were conducted with very little consideration for the environment.
- In the Canadian coniferous forests, over 7,000 abandoned mines can be found, many of which are close to rivers and lakes.
- This means harmful chemicals are washed into river ecosystems,disrupting the wildlife.
- To build mines large areas of forest must be cleared, and roads may be built to provide access to these sites.
What are the indirect threats to the Taiga?- exploitation of fossil fuels
- The extraction of oil in tar sands produces toxic waste, uses huge amounts of water, and requires the clearing of large areas of forest which disrupts the fragile ecosystem and displaces wildlife.
- 800000 barrels of oil are transported from Canada to USA daily.
What are the indirect threats to the Taiga?- HEP potential
- Although they have low precipitation, there is a lot of water in these ecosystems
- Huge areas of land need to be flooded in order to create reservoirs behind dams, which aid in the generation of HEP.
- In Canada, more than 52,000 km2 of forest and land has been flooded
- Has major consequences on plants and animals that depend on this ecosystem, especially the disruption of fish migration patterns (as dams block their routes).
- Have to relocate traditional people of the area
How does acid rain form?
- Acid rain forms when chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides are released from
burning fossil fuels. - These chemicals then react with water in clouds to form acidic compounds which then precipitate.
How does acid rain affect the Taiga?
- weakens trees, damages needles and reacts with soils to form harmful compounds.
- This can alter biodiversity by affecting biotic components that rely on these trees, and increasing acid-tolerant plants which may disrupt the food web.
How do pests affect the Taiga?
- They reduce biodiversity by killing large amounts of trees, which reduces food supplies for animals their seeds, having knock-on effects further up the food chain
- They reduce commercial value of the forest, preventing it being sold as timber
- Change dense forests to open landscape
How do forest fires affect the Taiga?
- Forest fires are a natural process and the biome is adapted to cope with the effects of fires.
- However, climate change is altering the pattern of wildfires.
If sufficient time does not pass between wildfires, biodiversity can be majorly affected:
* May not have time to regenerate, meaning less tolerant species of trees may die out, which cuts off a food supply for many animals
* Fire-tolerant vegetation may become more dominant. As the ecosystem is not adapted to this vegetation, there may be few herbivores to control it.
* Only animals that eat this vegetation can survive in the ecosystem.
