Environmental Impacts of Deforestation: A Detailed Analysis

This essay examines the detrimental environmental effects of deforestation, highlighting its impact on critical life cycles and ecosystems. Deforestation, primarily driven by agricultural expansion, significantly disrupts the carbon cycle by reducing carbon sequestration capacity and increasing CO2 emissions. The water cycle is also affected, leading to drier climates and altered river ecosystems due to the loss of water stored in rainforests. Furthermore, deforestation results in soil erosion, biodiversity loss, and habitat destruction, endangering numerous plant and animal species. The essay emphasizes the urgent need to curb deforestation to prevent irreversible environmental damage and preserve essential resources. The information presented is based on the student's course material and cited academic sources.

Impact of technology

Impact of deforestation
It is well known that almost 31 percent of the areas of land in the world is covered by forests.
The forest assists the people by providing purifying air, water, and also with jobs. Many animals
on the earth also rely on these forests. But due to deforestation, the lives of human beings and the
animals are in danger or under threat. According to da Silva, Prasad & Diniz-Filho (2017),
“Deforestation has badly affected the three life cycles such as hydrologic (water) cycle, carbon
cycle, and also on the species diversity”. The main cause of deforestation is agriculture. The trees
are removed by the farmers to increase the area which will be used for their livestock and crops.
In carbon cycle, the carbon moved between the geosphere, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere.
Because of deforestation the carbon cycle has been affected significantly. According to Tarko,
Kurbatova & Llerena (2019), the carbon cycle has been affected through sinking of carbon
dioxide and also through discharge of Co2. When there is deforestation of any forest then the
capacity of carbon sink. The cycle can also be affected when the CO2 is discharged from the
atmosphere or in case of release of CO2 into atmosphere. When the carbon dioxide is removed
by the plant stored by it then the whole process is known as carbon sequestration.
The water cycle has also been disrupted only because of the human activities of cutting down of
trees that is deforestation. Huge amount of waters is stored in the rain forest and after
deforestation activities, the stored waters are lost. As reported by Oljirra (2019), plants and trees
from the extract the groundwater which is returned to the atmosphere and in case of deforestation
extracted water are not able to get back towards atmosphere which results in dry climate, barren
deserts affecting the environment. In deforested area, the water sources seem to have a lower
level of oxygen, higher level of nitrate, and also higher level of temperature. The reason behind
this high temperature level is due to the curtailment of trees that were covering the waters from
the sunlight. All these factors are responsible for the disruption of the river ecosystem.

Large quantities of medical herbs are found in tropical rainforest and deforestation prevents to
take the benefits of these precious resources. Subtropical forest has also been destroyed by
industrial and agriculture sector. In most of the regions of the United States, the wetlands and the
forests are demolished for the purpose of residential development. As per the opinion of NASA
“deforestation should be curbed or curtailed otherwise the rainforest would be destroyed or
demolished in 100 years. Soil erosion is also the result of deforestation. When the roots of the
trees are cut then the soil could be blown or washed away. According to Zegeye (2017), the
removal of forests and trees will result in declining in biodiversity as well as the decline of
habitat. Biodiversity loss in the forest could result in harmful, abrupt, and irreversible changes.
The wildlife has also been drastically affected by the loss of trees and plants. The population of
animals has been reduced and also the herbs, shrubs, and trees are depleted in most of the regions
throughout the world. The animal that live in trees and after they are cut down the animals
becomes homeless and their habitat are destructed by the industrialist or agriculturist.

References
da Silva, J. M. C., Prasad, S., & Diniz-Filho, J. A. F. (2017). The impact of deforestation,
urbanization, public investments, and agriculture on human welfare in the Brazilian
Amazonia. Land Use Policy, 65, 135-142. [Available at
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264837716307256] [Accessed
on 10th April 2020]
Oljirra, A. (2019). The causes, consequences and remedies of deforestation in Ethiopia. Journal
of Degraded and Mining Lands Management, 6(3), 1747. [Available at
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origsite=gscholar&cbl=2048001 [Accessed on 13th April 2020]
Tarko, A., Kurbatova, A., & Llerena, S. (2019). Effect of CO2 increase on ecological parameters
of plant ecosystems of Central and South America countries. In E3S Web of
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conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2019/42/e3sconf_asee18_00090.pdf] [ Accessed
on 12th April 2020]
Zegeye, H. (2017). Major drivers and consequences of deforestation in Ethiopia: Implications for
forest conservation. Asian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(08), 5166-5175.
[Available at https://vipspublisher.com/journalajst.com/sites/default/files/issues-pdf/
4379.pdf] [Accessed on 11th April 2020]