unit 3 outcome 2: DEFORESTATION Flashcards
What is a forest?
> Land spanning more than 5 hectares with trees higher than 5m and canopy cover of more than 10%
What is a biome?
> Large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat
What are primary forests?
> intact or old grown forests that remain virtually in pristine condition, containing full array of species
34% of forests
What are secondary forests?
> regrowth or regenerated forests consists of native species but have been disturbed by human activities
59% of forests
What are plantations?
> monoculture of native or non native trees planted for commercial use and benefit and reproduction of a particular species e.g blue gums
7% of forests
Facts on deforestation as land cover change:?
> forest cover aprox 31% of worlds total land cover
contains most of world’s terrestrial biodiversity
deforestation resulted in annual loss of 10million hectares of forest in most recent years
1/3 of humanity depend on forests
What is deforestation?
> long term reduction of tree canopy cover to below 10-30% of its original land cover (depending on type of forest)
less than 10-30% remaining, conversion to other land use
Forests are modified and cleared…..
> as source of wood and non timber products
change the land cover to accommodate for settlements, farms, dams and mines
as result of natural disasters
vegetation can be physically removed of degraded, fire
What is forest degradation?
> forests modified by human activities (selective logging, fragmentation, selection etc)
more than 10-30% of forest remains
What is fragmentation?
> clearing of pockets of land mostly for roads, leaving pockets of forest, overtime, edges of forest pockets become degraded and pockets too small to support viable ecosystems
What is afforestation?
> Trees are planted on land that was not previously forested
What is net forest change?
> difference between deforested land and forest gains
