Term paper on Rainforests And Earth
Rainforests And Earth Essays
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Science; Rainforests and EarthThe Tropical Rainforests of the WorldIn this term paper, I will explain the great importance of the tropicalRainforests around the world and discuss the effects of the tragedy ofrainforest destruction and the effect that it is having on the earth. I willtalk about the efforts being made to help curb the rate of rainforestdestruction and the peoples of the rainforest, and I will explore a new topicin the fight to save the rainforest, habitat fragmentation. Another topic beingdiscussed is the many different types of rainforest species and theiruniqueness from the rest of the world. First, I will discuss the many species of rare and exotic animals, Native tothe Rainforest. Tropical Rainforests are home to many of the strangest lookingand most beautiful, largest and smallest, most dangerous and least frightening,loudest and quietest animals on earth. There are many types of animals thatmake their homes in the rainforest some of them include: jaguars, toucans,parrots, gorillas, and tarantulas. There are so many fascinating animals intropical rainforest that millions have not even identified yet. In fact, abouthalf of the world s species have not even been identified yet. But sadly, anaverage of 35 species of rainforest animals are becoming extinct every day. So many species of animals live in the rainforest than any other parts of theworld because rainforests are believed to be the oldest ecosystem on earth.Some forests in southeast Asia have been around for at least 100 million years,ever since the dinosaurs have roamed the earth. During the ice ages, the lastof which occurred about 10,000 years ago, the frozen areas of the North andSouth Poles spread over much of the earth, causing huge numbers of extinctions. But the giant freeze did not reach many tropical rainforests. Therefore, theseplants and animals could continue to evolve, developing into the most diverseand complex ecosystems on earth. The nearly perfect conditions for life also help contribute to the great numberof species. With temperatures constant at about 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit thewhole year, the animals don t have to worry about freezing during the coldwinters or finding hot shade in the summers. They rarely have to search forwater, as rain falls almost every day in tropical rainforests. Some rainforest species have populations that number in the millions. Otherspecies consist of only a few dozen individuals. Living in limited areas, mostof these species are found nowhere else on earth. For example, the mauesmarmoset, a species of monkey, wasn t discovered until recently. It s entiretiny population lives within a few square miles in the Amazon rainforest. Thisspecies of monkey is so small that it could fit into a persons hand!In a rainforest, it is difficult to see many things other than the millions ofinsects creeping and crawling around in every layer of the forest. Scientistsestimate that there are more than 50 million different species of invertebratesliving in rainforests. A biologist researching the rainforest found 50different of ants on a single tree in Peru! A few hours of poking around in arainforest would produce several insects unknown to science. The constant search for food , water, sunlight and space is a 24-hour pushingand shoving match. With this fierce competition, it is amazing that that somany species of animals can all live together. But this is actually the causeof the huge number of the different species. The main secret lies in the ability of many animals to adapt to eating aspecific plant or animal, which few other species are able to eat. An exampleof such adaptations would be the big beaks of the toucans and parrots. Theirbeaks give them a great advantage over other birds with smaller beaks. Thefruits and nuts from many trees have evolved with a tough shell to protect themfrom predators. In turn toucans and parrots developed large, strong beaks,which serves as a nutcracker and provides them with many tasty meals. Many animal species have developed relationships with each other that benefitboth species. Birds and mammal species love to eat the tasty fruits providedby trees. Even fish living in the Amazon River rely on the fruits dropped fromforest trees. In turn, the fruit trees depend upon these animals to eat theirfruit, which helps them to spread their seeds to far - off parts of the forest. In some cases both species are so dependent upon each other that if one becomesextinct, the other will as well. This nearly happened with trees that reliedon the now extinct dodo birds. They once roamed Mauritius, a tropical islandlocated in the Indian Ocean. They became extinct during the late 19th centurywhen humans overhunted them. The calvaria tree stopped sprouting seeds soonafter. Scientists finally concluded that, for the seeds of the calvaria treeto sprout, they needed to be digested by the dodo bird. By force feeding theseeds to a domestic turkey, who digested the seeds the same way as the dodobird, the trees were saved. Unfortunately, humans will not be able to saveeach species in this same way. Each species has evolved with its own set of unique adaptations, ways ofhelping them to survive. Every animal has the ability to protect itself frombeing someone s next meal. To prevent the extinction of a species each andevery species must develop a defense tactic. The following are just a few ofMother Nature s tricks. + CAMOFLAGEThe coloring of some animals acts as protection from their predators. Insectsplay some of the best hide-and-go-seek in the forest. The walking stick isone such insect; it blends in so well with the palm tree it calls its home thatno one would notice unless it s moved. Some butterflies, when they close theirwings, look exactly like leaves. Camouflage also works in reverse, helpingpredators, such as boa constrictors, sneak up on unsuspecting animals andsurprise them. + SLOW AS A SNAILThe tree-toed sloth is born with brown fur, but you would never know this bylooking at it. The green algae that makes its home in the sloths fur helps itto blend in with the tops of the trees, the canopy, where it makes it s home.But even green algae isn't the only thing living in a sloth s fur; it isliterally bugged with a variety of insects. 978 beetles were once foundliving on one sloth. The sloth has other clever adaptations. Famous for its snail-like pace; it isone of the slowest moving animals on earth. It is so slow that it often takesup to a month to digest it s food. Although its tasty meat would make a goodmeal for jaguars and other predators, most do not notice the sloth as it hangsin the trees, high up in the canopy. + DEADLY CREATURESOther animals don t want to announce their presence to the whole forest. Armedwith dangerous poisons used in life threatening situations, their bright colorswarn predators to stay away. This enables them to survive everyday emergencysituations. The coral snake of the Amazon, with its brilliant red, yellow, and blackcoloring, is recognized as one of the most beautiful snakes in the world, butit is just as deadly as it is beautiful. The coral snake s deadly poison cankill in seconds. Other animals know to stay away from it. The poison arrow frog also stands out with its brightly colored skin. It'sskin produces some of the strongest natural poison in the world, whichindigenous people often use for hunting purposes. It's poison is now beingtested for use in modern medicine. In a single raiforest habitat, several species of squirels can live togetherwithout harming one another. This bewilders many people, Louise Emmons found.Why can nine species of squirrels live together? Well, in a brief summary eachof the nine species is a different size; three have specialized diets orhabitats, which leaves six species that feed on nuts, fruits and insects, andso potentially compete for food. A closer look showed that three of the six, alarge, a medium, and a small one live in the forest canopy and never come tothe ground. The largest squirrel feeds mainly on very large, hard nuts, andthe smaller ones eat smaller fruits and nuts. The other three species, again alarge medium and small one live in the ground and eat fruits and nuts of thesame species as their canopy neighbors, but only after they fall to the ground. Tropical rainforests are bursting with life. Not only do millions of speciesof plants and animals live in rainforests, but many people also call therainforest their home. In fact, Indigenous, or native, people have lived inrainforests for thousands of years. In North and South America they weremistakenly named Indians by Christopher Columbus, who thought that he hadlanded in Indonesia, then called the East Indies. The native people of the rainforest live very different lives than us. In thissection, I will explain how very different our lives differ than from theindigenous people of the rainforest. Although many indigenous people live verymuch like we do, some still live as their ancestors did many years before them. These groups organize their daily lives differently than our culture.Everything they need to survive, from food to medicines to clothing, comes fromthe forest. + FOODBesides haunting, gathering wild fruits and nuts and fishing, Indigenous peoplealso plant small gardens for other sources of food, using a sustainable farmingmethod called shifting cultivating. First they clear a small area of land andburn it. Then they plant many types of plants, to be used for food andmedicines. After a few years, the soil has become too poor to allow for morecrops to grow and weeds to start to take over. So they then move to a nearbyuncleared area. This land is traditionally allowed to regrow 10-50 yearsbefore it is farmed again. Shifting cultivation is still practiced by those tribes who have access to alarge amount of land. However, with the growing number of non-Indigenousfarmers and the shrinking rainforest, other tribes, especially in Indonesia andAfrica, are now forced to remain in one area. The land becomes a wastelandafter a few years of overuse, and cannot be used for future agriculture. + EDUCATIONMost tribal children don t go to schools like ours. Instead, they learn aboutthe forest around them from their parents and other people in the tribe. Theyare taught how to survive in the forest. They learn how to hunt and fish, andwhich plants are useful as medicines or food. Some of these children know moreabout rainforests than scientists who have studied rainforests for many years. The group of societies known as Europeans includes such cultures such asSpanish and German. Similarly, the broad group, Indigenous peoples includesmany distinct culture groups, each with its own traditions. For instance,plantains (a type of banana) are a major food source for the Yanonami from theAmazon while the Penan of Borneo, Southeast Asia, depend on the sago palm (atype of palm tree) for food and other uses.All Indigenous people share their strong ties to the land. Because therainforest is so important for their culture, they want to take care of it.They want to live what is called a sustainable existence, meaning they use theland without doing harm to the plants and animals that also call the rainforesttheir home. As a wise Indigenous man once said, The earth is our historian,our educator, the provider of food, medicine, clothing and protection. She isthe mother of our races. (11)Indigenous peoples have been losing their lives and the land they live on eversince Europeans began colonizing 500 years ago. Most of them died from commonEuropean diseases which made Indigenous people very sick because they had neverhad these diseases before. A disease such as the flu could possibly kill anindigenous person because he/she has not been exposed to this disease before.Many Indigenous groups have also been killed by settlers wanting their land, orput to work as slaves to harvest the resources of the forest. Others wereconverts to Christianity by missionaries, who forced them to live likeEuropeans and give up their cultural traditions. Until about forty years ago, the lack of roads prevented most outsiders fromexploiting the rainforest. These roads, constructed for timber and oilcompanies, cattle ranchers and miners, have destroyed millions of acres eachyear. All of the practices force Indigenous people off their land. Because they donot officially own it, governments and other outsiders do not recognize theirrights to the land. They have no other choice but to move to different areas,sometimes even to the crowded cities. They often live in poverty because theyhave no skills useful for a city lifestyle and little knowledge about theculture. For example, they know more about gathering food from the forest thanbuying food from a store. It s like being forced to move to a differentcountry, where you knew nothing about the culture or language. Indigenous groups are beginning to fight for their land, most often throughpeaceful demonstrations. Such actions may cause them to be arrested or even tolose their lives, but they know that if they take no action, their land andculture could be lost forever. Kaypo Indians, for example, recently spoke tothe United States Congress to protest the building of dams in the Amazon, andwere arrested when they arrived back in Brazil, accused of being traitors totheir own country. In Malaysia, the Penean have arrested for blocking loggingroads. Many people living outside of rainforests went to help protect the Indigenouspeople s culture. They understand that Indigenous people have much to teach usabout rainforests. Since we (the US and other countries) have been workingwith the Indigenous People and other rainforest protection agencies, we havelearned many things about the forest, including it s ecology, medicinal plants,food and other products. It has also showed us how crucial it is for theIndigenous people of the rainforest to continue their daily and traditionalactivities because of their importance in the cycle if the rainforest. It hasshown us that they have the right to practice their own lifestyle, and liveupon the land where there ancestors have lived before them. (2)One such example of a invasion of the Ingenious people s privacy is a new socalled emergency called the Cofan Emergency. This dispute is about anIndigenous tribe called the Cofan. Historically, the Cofan occupied some halfa million acres of rainforest along the Aguarico River in the EcuadorianAmazon. Because their traditional territory has been significantly reducedthrough invasions by oil companies such as Texaco, the Cofan now live in fivesmall, discontinuous communities. However, they still utilize and protect aregion of about 250,000 acres, including two reserves in the Amazon. In addition to displacing the Cofan and other indigenous groups, oildevelopment, which began in this region over thirty years ago, has also causedserious environmental destruction. The deforestation of some two million acresof rainforest and contamination of the regions waterways has resulted in theloss of plant and animal diversity, and drastically affected the social andeconomic well-being of local Indigenous peoples. This devastation continues.Last year, ten new concessions were licensed to international oil companies inthe Ecuadorian Amazon, opening an additional five million acres of forest tooil development. One of these oil blocks, Block 11 awarded to the US-basedSanta Fe Energy, lies within Cofan territory and will directly affect at leastthree communities. In order to protect the remaining intact rainforest areas of their homeland andthe adjacent ecological reserves, the Cofan are seeking $5,000 to purchase anoutboard motor and a video camera, in order to coordinate between dispersecommunities and document the destruction caused by oil development. Cofanleaders plan to work with their communities and document the destruction causedby oil development. Also they planned to work with their communities toorganize against further environmental destruction by the oil companies. Thisgrant will also cover for legal costs to demarcate the Cofan community lands.In the next section of this term paper, I will be discussing a subject relatingto the rainforest called habitat fragmentation. Fragmentation of a habitat, by its very nature, reduces the total amount ofarea of the original habitat type. Two researchers, Ann Keller and JohnAnderson suggest that the absolute habitat loss of pristine habitat and thereduced density of resources associated with fragmentation potentially impactsthe biota (the plant and animal life of a region) more than any single factor.Habitat fragmentation affects the flora and fauna (plants and animals) of agiven ecosystem by replacing a naturally occurring ecosystem with ahuman-dominated landscape which may be inhospitable to a certain number of theoriginal species. However, in direct contrast to the ocean as a geographicbarrier, the human landscape matrix is typically accessible to...
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