How does the depletion of forests affect the eco-system? Explain two points?

the wilderness or bulldoze land for a new parking lot we are drastically altering an 

ecosystem. We have disrupted the food chain, the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the 

water cycle. Mining minerals also takes its toll on an ecosystem. We need to do our best to 

not interfere in these ecosystems and let nature take its toll. 

Because we share the world with many other species of plants and animals, we must consider 

the consequences of our actions. Over the past several decades, increasing human activity 

has rapidly destroyed or polluted many ecological habitats throughout the world. It is 

important to preserve all types of biomes as each houses many unique forms of life. 

However, the continued heavy exploitation of certain biomes, such as the forest, freshwater, 

and marine, may have more severe implications. 

Forests are important as they are home to the most diverse biotic communties in the world. 

Hidden within these biomes are potential medicines and many thousands of unseen and 

undiscovered species. Also, forests have a global climate-buffering capacity, so their 

destruction may cause large-scale changes in global climate. 

Logging has depleted many old-growth temperate forests. The increased demand for homes, 

paper, and other wood products have not allowed for much conservation. More recently, 

people have begun to realize that logging has cleared much of these forests. Wiser use of the 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

UNIT OVERVIEW

WEEK 2:HUMAN INTERACTION AND POLLUTION

ACTIVITY LISTforests and efforts to replant trees have helped to slow down the depletion of these 

communities. 

Tropical forests have fallen victim to timber exploitation, slash and burn farming, and 

clearfelling for industrial use or cattle ranching, particularly in Latin America. Our increasing 

demand for meat products has spurred these events. For years, this destruction was occuring 

at a rapid rate. Over half of the world's original tropical forests are already gone. Public 

attention to this exploitation have helped to alleviate the problem somewhat, though many 

challenges are still to be faced. 

The freshwater and marine biomes are probably the most important of all the biomes. Their 

medium, water, is a major natural resource. Water is the basis of life, it supports life, and 

countless species live in it for all or part of their lives. Freshwater biomes supply us with our 

drinking water and water for crop irrigation. The world's oceans have an even greater effect 

on global climate than forests do. Water has a high capacity for heat, and because the Earth 

is mostly covered with water, the temperature of the atmosphere is kept fairly constant and 

able to support life. In addition to this climate-buffering capacity, the oceans contain several 

billion photosynthetic plankton which account for most of the photosynthesis occuring on 

Earth. Without these, there might not be enough oxygen to support such a large world 

population and complex animal life. 

Freshwater biomes have suffered mainly from pollution. Runoff containing fertilizer and other 

wastes and industrial dumpings enter into rivers, ponds, and lakes and tend to promote 

abnormally rapid algae growth. When these algae die, dead organic matter accumulates in 

the water. This makes the water unusable and it kills many of the organisms living in the 

habitat. Stricter laws have helped to slow down this thoughtless pollution. 

Overfishing and pollution have threatened to make oceans into ecological disaster areas. 

Industrial pollutants that are dumped upstream of estuaries have rendered many marine 

habitats unsuitable for life. Again, tighter regulations have been used to prevent further 

destruction of the ocean biomes