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Human Factors Affecting Stores and Flows in the Rainforest (Management…
Human Factors Affecting Stores and Flows in the Rainforest
Water Cycle
17,500 km2 /yr deforestation
1/5 of primary forest destroyed or degraded in last 50 yrs
Upper Madeira Drainage Basin
Reduced water storage due to defor.
Run-off rapid
Mainly caused by defor. in Bolivia + Peru
30,000 km2 of Bolivian rainforest deforested in 10yrs for cattle ranching + subsistence farming - occurred mostly on steep slopes
Devastating floods 2014
68,000 families evacuated
Converting rainforest to grassland increases run-off by a factor of 27 + 1/2 goes directly into rivers
Stabilises albedo + ground temps
Defore. breaks the cycle that lead to convectional rainfall + high atm humidity
Can lead to permanent climate change
Predicted 20% decline in regional rainfall as rainforest dries out and is replaced by grassland
Affects downwind sites too - clouds and atmospheric humidity
Carbon Cycle
Biomass of trees is 60% of all C in the econsystem
Croplands + pasture hold little carbon
Reduced inputs of organic material into soil
Support fewer decomposers
Less flow to atm of C
Nutrients (Ca, potassium + Mg)
Defor. destroys main nutrient store
Leached out of soils
Soils quickly erode unprotected
Management strategies
Brazil is committed to restoring 120,000 km2 by 2030
Indigenous people survived as hunter-gatherers + shifting cultivators
Protective legislation of forest
Amazon Regional Protected Areas
20 times size of Belgium
44% of Brazilian Amazon
Reforesting projects
Parica project in western Amazon
Sustainable forestry
1000km2 commercial timber on deforested land
Fast growing tropical hardwood seedlings
Financial assistance to smallholders
Monoculture but sustainable
Protect primary forest
Indigenous Surui people
Group joined UN REDD scheme
Payment for abandoning logging and protecting
Market-based approach and these credits can be bought by TNCs who have gone over their carbon quotas
Against illegal logging on tribal land
Native species planted in deforested plots and degraded areas
Improved agricultural techniques
Permanent cultivation is unsustainable due to low c in soil
Diversification
Rotational cropping
Livestock + arable
Investigating dark soils with charcoal, waste + manure in
Allow intensive + permanent cultivation
16th C supported large pop.