A Question of Balance Tuesday 25 July 2017
How forests influence the environment If our society understood the role of trees we would view the destruction of forests as an act of sabotage against ourselves and life on Earth. Our political behaviour would be very different. Plants contribute about half of the Oxygen in the air. Without forests, the Oxygen breathing life on earth (including humans) would perish. The ozone layer would be so thin that temperatures on Earth would be roasting by day and freezing by night. Trees pull Carbon out of the air and store it in their bodies, acting as a Carbon sink that prevents catastrophic global warming. Forests are largely responsible for creating the fertility on Earth. The topsoil contains most of the fertility and has both excellent drainage and water retention properties. A teaspoon of forest soil contains billions of microbiological life forms. It takes a forest about 100 years to create 1mm of topsoil. Forests add rainfall into the ecosystem and conserve it. Water evaporates from the ocean and moves over land as humid air. Above forests float a complex cloud of tiny, living particles such as pollen and micro organisms. These particles act as nuclei over which humid air condenses, forming rain drops. So take away the forests and you get drought. Condensation of humid, misty air also occurs on forest leaves and drips to the ground. On seaward facing ridge tops the water dripping off the forest canopy can be several times more than recorded rainfall, which is often also above the local average. Forests break up rainfall, slow it down and absorb it into soil. Thus, forested rivers flow constantly despite erratic rainfall because water is flowing through the soil months or years after it fell as rain. Trees also transpire water into the air which forms rain clouds. If you have a lot of forest, you have good biodiversity. If you have well forested catchments, stream banks and wetlands then you have viable waterways.
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