L2 - Sarawak gets whacked

Question 1

What is a direct threat to TRF?

Answer 1

Deforestation

Question 2

Give 4 reasons for commercial hardwood logging.

Answer 2

Poverty - farmers make a living

Debt - countries sell timber to make money and pay off debts

Economic development - forests sacrificed for roads and HEP for e.g.

Resource demand - e.g. palm oil

Question 3

What is subsistence agriculture?

Answer 3

Where farmers farm just enough to feed their families
- trees cut down to plant crop
ISSUE: weed takes over nutrients in soil making the land infertile, farmers then farm and deforest again.

Question 4

What has commercial agriculture led to?

Answer 4

More deforestation for biofuels, growing cash crops

Question 5

What are indirect threats to TRF?

Answer 5

Climate change due to GHGs
Leads to species extinction
Plants flower earlier, birds migrate eariler
Less rain to TRF

Question 6

How are ecosystems under stress?

Answer 6

Drought
Leaf litter dries, decomposers die
Canopy leaves die, affecting food webs
Deforestation makes droughts severe
Less evap and transpiration