Rainforest deforestation - Research Paper Example

Rainforests are home to the most important non-renewable resources on earth, and to take them for granted is unjustifiable. This paper discusses the effects of deforestation on the world’s existing rainforests. This section focuses on the major effects of deforestation, which comprise damage to rainforest biodiversity and soil. The severest problem linked to deforestation is species extinction. Although the rate of extinction has almost certainly accelerated recently, the crisis itself is old.

The threat of rainforest species extinction if deforestation carries on was foretold more than two decades ago (Andersen et al. 2002). There are several explanations why species die out due to deforestation. According to Andersen and colleagues (2002), a major fundamental factor is linked to the huge diversity of rainforest species, which implies that each species normally has several individuals and is hence extremely vulnerable to strain and change. Strain arises directly from the destruction of the environment and related destruction of natural environmental functioning when an area of rainforest is cut down or burned.

Scrapping of the forest ecological unit, without total extraction, such as selective logging, also produces strain for the species which are dislocated or removed (Park 1992). Damage to the habitat implies a shortening environmental span for each species and heightened competition for resources and survival in the lands left behind for habitation. Remaining species are distressed, as well (Bosetti & Lubowski 2010). A decreasing number of areas fit for habitation imply that the surviving species are left with no choice but to subsist in a smaller territory, confronting increased rivalry from each other and other species.

Deforestation impacts the entire ecological unit. Each species performs an important function in sustaining the forest system’s fragile ecological equilibrium, and