Can’t get away from fragmentation
After all of our dicussions in class about fragmentation, it seems to keep popping up in the news. It just goes to show what an important issue it really is. The article I read happened to focus on the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. It immediately made me think of the movie Fern Gully. I watched it all the time when I was little, and ironically enough, watched it about a month ago with one of my friends. For those of you who haven’t seen it…I highly recommend it. It tells the story of a young man cutting down trees in a rainforest who comes into contact with the creatures of the forest, and they end up saving it! It has always made me ultra-sensitive to deforestation.
Rain forests are pretty timeless ecosystems, the trees can live for centuries.
Cutting downs trees that old would obviously cause a drastic change in an environment. No one expected the effects to be so severe so soon…but when you really think about it it makes complete sense. If the environment is used to staying stable with the same trees for centuries at a time, a small disturbance would cause a huge dilemma for every aspect of the ecosystem. Deforestation removes the staple element, leaving the animals and undergrowth plants without their source of protection, food, and habitat. So along with the destruction of the trees, other plants and animals are disappearing from the forests.
The specific problem in the article I read has to do with hot winds blowing into the forest, killing the trees that weren’t cut down. This kind of leaks into our discussions of edge effect, as much edges are being produced around the ecosystem, more damage is done. It really makes you realize the grand importance of trees as protectors and insulators of the forest. When you really think about it, we’re killing off one of the most diverse areas on Earth on account of rancing, farming, and industrial usage.
In my eyes, it’s definitely not worth it. We’re killing species that we don’t even know about, and they’re being replaced by the common species and pioneer plants. We’re putting ourselves a couple steps behind where we could be, if we only left the forests alone to be researched and preserved. Unfortunately there are no talking chipmunks and fairies to save our forests like in Fern Gully. This just means WE have to start doing our part before it’s too late.
Photos: www.wikimedia.org
Article: www.enn.com
