ENVS Chapter 6
Malaysia and Indonesia together produce the majority of ______, which is commonly used in packaged foods, soaps, and cosmetics.
Palm oil
Only 22% of its land is protected, but land is well managed with hundreds of thousands of employees and billions of dollars in public funding.
United States
It claims 66% of the country is protected, largely for preserves for indigenous people or for sustainable resource harvesting.
Venezuela
How many people in the world today depend on wood as their main source of heating and cooking fuel?
- 2 billion
Massive deforestation in the South American country of _____ occurred to make land for soybeans and cattle.
- Brazil
Man and Biosphere (MAB) program
A design for nature preserves that divides protected areas into zones with different purposes. A highly protected core is surrounded by a buffer zone and peripheral regions in which multiple-use resource harvesting is permitted.
core habitat
A habitat patch large enough and with ecological characteristics suitable to support a critical mass of the species that make up a particular community.
world conservation strategy
A proposal for maintaining essential ecological processes, preserving genetic diversity, and ensuring that utilization of species and ecosystems is sustainable.
edge effects
A change in species composition, physical conditions, or other ecological factors at the boundary between two ecosystems.
ecotourism
A combination of adventure travel, cultural exploration, and nature appreciation in wild settings.
shelterwood harvesting
Mature trees are removed from the forest in a series of two or more cuts, leaving young trees and some mature trees as a seed source for future regeneration.
Deforestation and degradation release carbon by
- Burning trees, releasing carbon stored in the wood and leaves - Fallen vegetation decays, releasing stores carbon - Accumulation of carbon in soil litter declines; exposed soils dry, and carbon in soil oxidizes to CO2 - The forest ecosystem is no longer available to store carbon
Deforestation and climate change are linked, as trees are major ____sinks. When forests are burned or cleared, this element is released as a greenhouse gas.
- Carbon
The most widely used method of lumber harvest in North America is ___.
- Clear-Cutting
What tree harvesting method harvests every tree regardless of size and is the most common lumber harvest method in North America?
- Clear-cutting
Principles of ecosystem management include managing whole landscapes over ecological time, depending on scientifically sound _____ for decision making, and maintaining biological _____ and essential ecosystem processes.
- Data - Diversity
What are the primary reasons that Brazil lost 28,000 km2 of tropical forest by the early 21st century?
- Destruction from forest fires - Clearing for cattle ranches
Which of these are likely to become higher, more frequent, and/or more abundant due to deforestation?
- Drought - Wildfires - Temperatures
How do rainfall patterns change due to deforestation?
- Droughts become more frequent.
Rank the following protected areas according to the amount of allowed human impact, placing the area with the smallest impact at the top.
- Ecological reserves - National parks - National monuments - Wildlife management areas - Scenic landscape
Monoculture forestry has large plantations of one type of tree that are easy to harvest. However, the lack of diversity often makes the forest poor in terms of ___.
- Ecology
Some ranchers are switching to wild species such as ___ as they seem to be more efficient and hardy than their usual domestic livestock.
- Elk - Impala - Bison
Why is the Smokey Bear policy of immediately suppressing all fires misguided?
- Fire plays an ecological role in forests. - The buildup of woody debris creates a threat of very big and dangerous fires. - Some forest habitats need fire for regeneration.
What accounts for nearly half of global wood use?
- Fuelwood
Which of the following geographic locations in the United States is primarily grasslands?
- Great plains
What drives deforestation?
- Industrial-scale agriculture (soy and palm oil production, cattle ranching) - Industrial logging driven by international demand for timber - Poverty and population pressure as people seek farmland and fuelwood - Road development, oil development. Mining, and dams
What are some of the reasons the REDD program is gaining traction?
- It promotes indigenous knowledge. - It works for different interest groups. - It helps to protect biodiversity and other resources.
The scientific planning of the planting, growth, and harvest of trees is called forest
- Management
Barren land created by the overgrazing of grasslands will reflect ____ of the sun's heat than if it was left as grass, causing even more desertification.
- More
How do forests and woodlands (together as a group) rank in terms of world land use?
- More land is covered in forests and woodlands than by either range and pasture or cropland.
Forest landscape integrity index study in 2020 saw that only 40% of the worlds remaining forests have high landscape-level integrity
- Most of which are in Canada, Russia, the amazon region, central Africa, and new guinea
Which region has had a net increase in the amount of forest area from 1992-2015?
- North America
Products from deforested lands
- Oil and gasoline - Food, cosmetics containing palm oil - Paper products - Aluminum (from bauxite ore) - Metals, gems, electronic components
Forests - Any area where trees cover more than 10% of the land
- Open savannas trees occupy less than 20% - Closed canopy forests trees cover most of the ground - The largest tropical forest is in the Amazon River basin - The highest rates of forest loss are in south America
The primary goal of the ___ program, as evidenced by the acronym, is to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.
- REDD
Lowering your forest impacts
- Recycle paper and re-use it as scratch paper. Make double-sided copies or avoid printing altogether - Buy products made from certified sustainably harvested wood. If you build, use composites, particle board, or laminated beams, rather than plywood and timber from old-growth forests - Avoid tropical hardwood products - Avoid foods from deforested rainforest - Do buy nontimber forest products - Visit forested areas and spend your ecotourism money there
Which of the following are methods that ranchers are experimenting with to improve the health of the rangelands?
- Restoring fire to the land - Using rotational grazing techniques - Raising wild species that are more efficient and disease-resistant
What federal rule bans logging, road building, and development on designated U.S. lands?
- Roadless rule
Which of the following alternatives to clear-cutting is the least disruptive harvest method?
- Selective cutting
People often destroy forests using ___ techniques that make the land ready for cultivation.
- Slash and burn
Over the years 1992-2015, which continent has had the greatest percentage of forest loss?
- South America
What happened in 2017 to the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument?
- The U.S. president opened it to commercial fishing when companies complained it wasn't accessible.
Why does logging for a few valuable hardwood trees in a tropical forest easily lead to widespread deforestation in an area?
- The loggers build roads that can be used by farmers, miners, hunters, and other loggers.
How do pastoralists utilize grasslands?
- They herd animals on it
What is the difference between a savanna type forest and a closed-canopy forest?
- Tree spacing is open in a savanna, but very dense in a closed-canopy forest.
The tremendous amount of biomass stored in ______ forests, continues to be at risk, as these areas have decreased significantly in size in the past few decades.
- Tropical
Greatest % of world coverage to the least
- Tropical moist forest - Boreal forest - Temperate forest - Tropical dry forest
True or False: The burning of forests releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn may affect climate change.
- True
Ecological services protected under REDD
- Water supplies - Biodiversity - Climate and weather regulation
Approximately 1/4 of the world's forests are managed for ___.
- Wood production
Most of the forests that remain are located in ___ and ___ regions.
- cold boreal; tropical moist
Overgrazing of livestock on land leads to ___.
- damage to vegetation - erosion - more runoff
In 1994, the U.S. Northwest forest management plan integrated local needs, scientific study, and best practices in land use in order to consider both human and ______ dimensions while protecting the forests and the wildlife within them.
- economic
The significant loss of tropical forests is disconcerting as they are thought to contain at least ___.
- half of all plant, animal, and microbial species in the world
Forests are vital because they ___.
- help to regulate climate - control water runoff - purify air and water - provide habitat for wildlife
Ecotourism can ___.
- increase a country's economic status - support sustainability by replacing extractive industries such as logging and mining - encourage resource preservation
Large plantations that grow a single species of tree that undergoes intensive cropping are an example of ___.
- monoculture forestry
The logging of U.S. temperate rainforests has been especially contentious over the past few decades because ___.
- of the threat to the vast diversity and specific animals that live there
About 55% of public rangelands in the U.S. are in poor to very poor condition due to
- overgrazing
The fastest-growing type of forest product is ___.
- paper pulp
The data collected to date strongly supports the idea that marine preserves are successful at ____ fish populations in the surrounding oceans.
- replenishing
A key part of the REDD program is to have ___ finance forest protection in poor countries.
- wealthy countries
overgrazing
Allowing domestic livestock to eat so much plant material that it degrades the biological community.
ecosystem management
An integration of ecological, economic, and social goals in a unified systems approach to resource management.
It has the largest total area of land protected of all countries; more than 2.5 million km2.
Brazil
rotational grazing
Confining grazing animals in a small area for a short time to force them to eat weedy species as well as the more desirable grasses and forbes.
desertification
Denuding and degrading a once fertile land, initiating a desert-producing cycle that feeds on itself and causes long-term changes in soil, climate, and biota of an area.
Old-growth forests
Forests free from disturbance for long enough (generally 150 to 200 years) to have mature trees, physical conditions, species diversity, and other characteristics of equilibrium ecosystems. - Support critical areas of biodiversity, endangered species, and indigenous human cultures - They are free of industrial disturbances - Does not mean humans are absent
It has a large reserve area that is mostly ice covered.
Greenland
selective cutting
Harvesting only mature trees of certain species and size; usually more expensive than clear-cutting but less disruptive for wildlife and often better for forest regeneration.
strip-cutting
Harvesting trees in strips narrow enough to minimize edge effects and to allow natural regeneration of the forest.
monoculture forestry
Intensive planting of a single species; an efficient wood production approach, but one that encourages pests and disease infestations and conflicts with wildlife habitat or recreation uses.
Has a large reserve area that is mostly desert.
Saudi Arabia
corridors
Strips of natural habitat that connect two adjacent nature preserves to allow migration of organisms from one place to another.
biosphere reserves
World heritage sites identified by the IUCN as worthy for national park or wildlife refuge status because of high biological diversity or unique ecological features.