Deforestation in the Amazon River Basin

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Deforestation of the Amazon River basin has been progressing for decades as mass quantities of land have become necessary to sustain the growing farming industry of the area. Road-building, farming, ranching, and logging have been devastating to the tropical forests and the change has been rapid as deforestation of the area only began around 1970 (Fearnside, Pfaff). The government of countries in the Amazon have designed their current initiatives around increasing infrastructure and business, but these initiatives are largely responsible for deforestation activity (Laurance). The decline in forests of this region has become a serious issue as the effects it has on the climate and ecosystem of the Amazon River basin and the rest of the world are great. The high rate of deforestation in this area, averaging from 25,000 to 50,000 square kilometers per year since 1970, suggests numbers that project a complete absence of Amazonian tropical forest within the next 50 to 100 years if greater prevention methods are not taken (Shukla). These number projections mean threatening futures for deforestation dynamics, carbon fluxes, forest fragmentation, impacted ecosystems, social issues, and climates both of the region and the world. Recent changes in Amazon River basin are a direct result of deforestation. Climate change in the area highlights the negative impact that the loss of tropical forests in this area has had. Because the presence or absence of vegetation is directly influential in regional climate, shown though controlled numerical experiments with complex models of the atmosphere, studies have shown that the changing climate of this area is due in large part to deforestation. Moderate and localized deforestation has caused a local re... ... middle of paper ... ...hange." Science(Washington) 247.4948 (1990): 1322-1325. Sierra, Rodrigo. "Dynamics and patterns of deforestation in the western Amazon: the Napo deforestation front, 1986–1996." Applied Geography 20.1 (2000): 1-16. Tarticlet, A. "Tropical deforestation and habitat fragmentation in the Amazon: satellite data from 1978 to 1988." Science 260 (1993): 1905. Walker, Robert, Emilio Moran, and Luc Anselin. "Deforestation and cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon: external capital and household processes." World development 28.4 (2000): 683-699. Werth, David, and Roni Avissar. "The local and global effects of Amazon deforestation." Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (1984–2012) 107.D20 (2002): LBA-55. Zeng, Ning, Robert E. Dickinson, and Xubin Zeng. "Climatic impact of Amazon deforestation-A mechanistic model study." Journal of Climate 9.4 (1996): 859-883.

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