Temperate Forest Ecosystem Services

Temperate forests have been the starting point for many great civilizations in both hemispheres. One of the reasons is the different resources and services these forests could provide. It is sometimes hard to consider these services as they are taken for granted since they have been in our lives forever. With the recent valuation of ecosystems the price tag of the services, gives an indication of the condition and importance these services are to our well-being.

So what do Temperate Forests provide for us?

Hydrological services

Forests act like a filter by purifying the water in addition to reducing the risk of flooding. The forest canopy intercepts the water reaching the ground and some of it, is used up through the root system and transpires. Furthermore, they supply water for domestic and industrial consumption, protect watersheds (Figure 1), provide water for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation (Ninan K.N. & Inoue M.,2013).

Figure 1: Forested watersheds are exceptionally stable hydrological systems (Canada) (FAO)

Soil Protection

Soil erosion is a hazard for many parts of the world. As in the case of rainforests, temperate forests protect the soil by preventing damage of the top soil and nutrient loss, siltation of rivers and dams. In addition to this they help prevent the degradation of land and crop productivity (Ninan K.N. & Inoue M., 2013).

Carbon Sequestration

Similarly to oceans, forests act as major contributors to the sinking of carbon. The assimilation of carbon by the forest and the release of oxygen regulates the atmosphere. Logging activities and burning release the stored carbon back into the atmosphere as the CO₂ greenhouse gas (Ninan K.N. & Inoue M., 2013). Carbon is also locked up in the soil. This carbon is incorporated by the detritus as organic matter through the litter and its decomposition and it is of high importance to the forest productivity (Nave L.E., et al,2010).

Recreation

Temperate forests provide numerous recreational benefits. Due to the different latitudes theses ecosystems are found, the recreational activities vary providing different experiences to the people (Ninan K.N. & Inoue M., 2013). Some of the activities include wildlife viewing, nature walks, tourism, hunting (although I don’t really approve of that) and enjoying the scenery (Pearce D. & Moran D., 1994).

Other services

Historically, temperate forests were a source of timber as fuel wood and building material for houses and furniture (NúñezD., et al., 2006). In addition to this, temperate forests are the home of many endemic species of fauna and flora (Bond, 2010). The pollinators contribute to a high value service in these forests.

These services are only the ones that are most useful to humans and have a big impact on our lives with the absence of temperate forests. Nowadays, it is necessary to put a value on the environment in order to appreciate its existence. I will be discussing this in a later blog post. 

Happy New Year!!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

It is Christmas Eve and most of us have decorated a Christmas tree with lights and colourful knick-knacks. The home decoration with evergreens such as pine, fir and spruce  fount in Temperate and Boreal forests was a habit long before Christianity was introduced. The evergreens were special to people as they remained green all year round and they used to hang boughs over entrances and windows to keep evil spirits away.

In the Northern hemisphere winter solstice (longest night of year) usually occurs on 21^st of December the ancient peoples celebrated the solstice with the evergreens as a reminder that the summer is now coming and green plants will grow. Different cultures celebrated the solstice with evergreens such as the ancient Egyptians worshipping god Ra, the Early Romans the Saturnalia feast, the ancient Celts priests the Durids.

The Christmas tree tradition is credited to the Germans when Christians decorated trees in their houses in the 16^th century.

The popularity of the Christmas tree grew when the popular royals-Queen Victoria and her German Prince were illustrated in the London News around the Christmas tree with their family in 1846.  Since then Christmas trees (Figure 1) became fashionable not only in Europe but also in the American society. It was also noted that the Europeans decorated small trees up to 4ft where as the Americans used to decorate trees from floor to the ceiling (History).

Figure 1: Prince Albert's practice of putting up Christmas trees at Windsor became well known in the 1840s (BBC)

Here is a video of the Christmas tree life in the farm in the U.S. (History).

Happy Holidays !!

Types of Temperate Forests

Since the Temperate Forests cover a vast area at different latitudes, there are different kinds of trees that prevail different areas. In general, the canopy has the characteristic of being moderately dense allowing the light to penetrate giving rise to high understory flora biodiversity and stratifying the animals (UCMP). The main categories are coniferous, mixed broadleaved/ coniferous forests and broadleaved forests. Within these categories there are different types of forest depending on the soil, temperature and rainfall.

For example deciduous forests-the ones that have the more profound changes with seasonality- have broadleaved trees with large, thin leaves allowing maximum absorption of light. In the colder areas winter, they shed their leaves. Deciduous trees include oak, chestnut, maple and elm. Most of the natural forests in the northern hemisphere are now farmland, the ones that have survived are located along the west coast of USA, and Canada (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Deciduous Forest, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska (SkolaiImages)



The great Douglas fir and hemlock are considered to be Temperate Rainforests since they receive> 2000 mm/year of rain. They are located in the British Colombia in Canada, Northwest USA in addition to Chile. These forests are dominated by conifers.

The forests that are close to my heart are the Mediterranean Forests which include pines and small oaks and cork-oak. This type of vegetation can accommodate longer hot summers of southern Europe. They are sometimes pervcieved as not 'true forests'  since they are scrublands that do not grow to thick to become a forest (WWF).

The wildlife in Temperate Forests is adapted against predation and therefore can be hard to see. With the different colours and markings they are camouflaged where as others are nocturnal. Most of the species of animals that we can easily recognize have Temperate Forests as their home. For example the small marsupials, in addition to koalas, kookaburras and many others depend on the Australian forests for survival. In North America these forest host the very familiar to us bears, deer, rabbits in addition to a vast number of other animals and birds. China’s temperate forests protect endangered species such as the giant pandas and my personal favorite red pandas (Figure 2)(GLOBIO)

Figure 2:Endangered Red Panda (NatGeo)

Temperate Forests have helped human populations in many ways but in my opinion they are underestimated due their availability to the developed world. In the following posts I will be discussing the changes Temperate Forest have undergone in addition to the ecosystem services they provide.

The Four Season Forests

Moving away from the Tropics and the magnificent, highly diverse Rainforests, I will be going into the Temperate Forests. If you happen to live in the mid-latitudes, it is highly likely that where you are, once used to be growing a Temperate Forest. Temperate forests are the source of many of our favourite foods (e.g. apples, maple sugar, walnuts, mushrooms and may more). Adding to this, a considerable amount of the food we eat is agriculturally produced in areas where the Temperate Forests used to thrive but were cleared to sustain the human population and to provide food security to their nations (GLOBIO).

They are found in the mid-latitudes and thus between the Tropics and the Poles at about 25° and 50° in the North as well as the South Hemisphere (Figure 1) (EncyclopædiaBritannica). Temperate Forests are known for their distinct changes throughout the four seasons, since their location allows the exposure to warm and cold air masses. They have a moderate climate with temperatures ranging from -30°C to 30°C with hot summers, cold winters and precipitation of 750 to 1,500 mm/year. Seasonality is more notable with deciduous forests (EarthObservatory).


Figure 1: Map of Temperate Forests ( Riccardo Pravettoni, UNEP/GRID-Arendal)



Winter: most forests are covered with snow and the wildlife hides or migrates to be warm.

Spring: as the days get longer and warmer, wildlife and trees rebirth with the new leaves and budding on deciduous trees. The hatching of insects, gives food for return of the migrating birds in addition to rodents and reptiles.

Summer: the forest is green with abundant food. The animals give birth to babies, and the forest is busy throughout day and night.

 

Fall: as the days become shorter and colder, the deciduous trees change their leaf colour to orange, yellow, red, and brown since they lose their chlorophyll exposing other pigments. The falling leaves provide thick leaf litter to be recycled in the soil. Also, animals store for the winter months, since very little food will be available (Figure 2) (GLOBIO).

Figure 2: The Four Seasons Temperate Forests (biomesthird10)

Humans take action to protect world’s rainforests

There are different opinions amongst people on how natural resources can be used on a local and global scale. Some local governments - such as the Indonesian Government facilitate the destruction of rainforests (JakartaGlobe) and foreign investors are more interested in the exploitation of services of rainforests in the short term. Fortunately, impacts of rainforest degradation have not been unnoticed by organisations, different bodies and governments by appreciating the importance of the magnificent and most diverse biome in the world.
 
Likeminded people came together to form different groups (Non-governmental organisations-NGO’s) all interested in conservation and sustainable living. One of these groups is GREENPEACE having the vision of “a green and peaceful world - an earth that is ecologically healthy and able to nurture life in all its diversity”. Their activity does not only involve the protection of rainforests, but they have come to have a significant impact on the public’s opinion. In 2006, they have achieved ‘McVictory’ as they call it, when McDonald’s agreed to stop using deforested Amazon areas to feed its chicken. This was the starting point for other major companies to sign up to zero carbon policy such as Cargill, Marks & Spencer, ASDA, Waitrose, and Sainsbury’s. Other activities include the banning of cattle purchasing from the amazon in 2009, and in 2010 the agreement from Nestlé to stop using palm oil from the Indonesian rainforest (Greenprace).
 
The Rainforest Alliance has been active since 1987 with the vision of “a world where people and the environment prosper together”. They are trying to do that through the markets by identifying and addressing the major destructors of the ecosystem. This is done by ensuring the sustainable management of different properties and by linking the public with businesses through the (hopefully familiar!) marks of Rainforest Alliance Certified™seal  (Figure 1) and Rainforest Alliance Verified™ mark (Figure 2). They have also helped to establish the Forest Stewardship council. With the increasing publicity and interest in rainforests there are a growing numbers of NGO’s ready to fight for conservation.



Figure 1:  Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal 
 



 



Figure 2: Rainforest Alliance Verified™ mark



The United Nations an intergovernmental organisation (IGO), where in 1972 the United Nations Environment Peogramme (UNEP) was developed as “the voice on environment within the UN system” in order to promote sustainable development around the world. In 1992, the Rio Earth Summit was held in Brazil by the UN with 178 countries attending where amongt others, the intrioduction of sustainable development was discussed. The summit resulted to the development of different documents such as the Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

In 2000 there was the initiation of the MIllenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The objective: “to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and the scientific basis for action needed to enhance the conservation and sustainable use of those systems and their contribution to human well-being”. The MA recognised that the economic and social development of the last 50 years came at a growing cost for the environment. The MA aimed to assist in the decision-making in relation to ecosystem management for the well-being of humans.

Furthermore, the UN declared 2010-2020 United Nations Decade on Biodiversity aiming to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and to help reach the Millennium Development Goals. The following Video summarises the importance of this action.


In addition to this, the UN declared 2011 International Year of Forests (ForestryCommission). These types of declarations, increase public awareness of the issues and they also provide a platform for action.

The UN-REDD programme was developed in 2008. ‘It is an initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries. Following REDD, REDD+ has the goal to reduce the degradation and deforestation rate that will in turn reduce the emissions of carbon in addition to increasing carbon sequestration in rainforests (Skutsch M., et al., 2013).

Rio+20 took place in Brazil 2012, 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit (1992). The focus was on green economy, decrease poverty and to improve coordination for sustainable development. "Rio+20 has given us a solid platform to build on. And it has given us the tools to build with. The work starts now" said the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. More than 700 commitments were made, with the pledge of over $500 billion.

All these encouraging initiatives from governments, NGO’s, IGO and the support of the public raise awareness to other individuals encouraging more and more people to support conservation and sustainable living not only in rainforests, but around the globe.

Impacts of Rainforest Deforestation

In my last post I have explored some of the main causes leading to deforestation and the clearing of large areas of land of other activities. Most of the world’s deforestation activity occurs in rainforests. So why should we not cut down the trees in the rainforests? This post aims to explore the impact locally as well as globally.

Biodiversity

The global scale conversion of rainforests to agricultural land is undoubtedly a major driver of local biodiversity loss in both fauna (Figure 1) and flora where in turn has an impact on ecosystem functioning (Steffan-Dewenter I.et al., 2007). Having the largest amount and the highest diversity of species (in 1ha in the Amazon there are more species of plants than the whole of Europe! (GREENPEACE)) It is highly likely that with the loss of their habitat these species will become extinct due to their endemic distributions making them susceptible to any environmental change. Adding to this, there are many species that are yet to be discovered and documented and this is extremely important to medicine as a huge number cures have become form rainforest plants (WebEcoist).

Figure 1: Some of the fauna in Costa Rica (The Costa Rican Times)

One example of ecosystem services that are going to be impacted in the long run due to deforestation, is tree pollination. Priess J.A. et al., (2007) suggest that there will be a decline in the pollination services in relation to forest conversion directly reducing 18% of coffee yields that in turn will reduce the net revenues up to 14% in the next 20 years (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The Asian giant honeybee, Apis dorsata, is one of a number of pollinators of coffee in southern India (ETH)

Climate

The Amazon basin has the drainage basin area of about 7 million km² making it the biggest watershed in the world. It contributes 13% of the total runoff of the globe in to the oceans. In addition to this, 50-60% of the precipitation of the area is attributed to the evapotranspiration (Figure 3) of the flora of that basin and thus having a large impact on the energy as well as the water balance regionally and globally. In the scenario of severe deforestation, and thus a degree of land restructuring will alter the atmosphere dynamics with water flux weakening (D’Almeida C. et al.,2007).

 



Figure 3: Evapotranspiration in Western Congo Basin, Gabon

 

In the case of the Northern Hemisphere circulation, it has been observed that there is statistical significance between deforestation effects on the NE Atlantic winter rainfall that could extent towards Europe (Gedney N. & Valdes P. J.,2000)

The deforestation in Southeast Asia resulted to the decrease in precipitation that was observed outside the deforested area through winds. Werth D. & Avissar R. (2005) observed a proportional relationship between the impact of the magnitude and the degree of deforestation.

The storage of carbon also changes by deforestation which in turn has an impact in the global climate. Carbon release through forest degradation in addition to deforestation, is the 2^nd largest emission of greenhouse gas (Soares-Filho B. et al., 2010). 50% of CO₂ emissions are a result of forest fires and the rest are from respiration of organic material in the undergrowth (Van Der Werf G.R. et al., 2009).

Flooding & Mudslides

One of the characteristic of the tropics is daily rainfall and hence RAINforests exist there. The biome has developed and adapted to the heavy rainfall through specialisations resulting to ¾ of the water from precipitation to be interrupted by vegetation. With deforestation, there is little vegetation to control water flow resulting to severe flooding. Flooding also causes mudslides (Figure 4) where the soil becomes loose with the absence of roots leading to these two devastating effects. Furthermore, aquifers become depleted since there are decreasing infiltration rates and the water reaches the oceans as runoff. The decrease of the essential fresh water in the aquifers is a main problem for the ever growing population the tropics (Hilderman R., 2010).

 

 

Figure 4: Heavy landslides claiming lives in Malaysia (THE WATCHERS)

 

In general deforestation destructs the healthy functioning of the biome and has severe effects globally as well as locally on the environment and the ecosystem services it provides. The most likely to be impacted by deforestation in short term are the surrounding population where in most cases are from developing countries and thus increasing the impact due to poor infrastructure.



Why do we cut down rainforest’s trees?

 

Deforestation is one of the factors contributing to the force of human activity to become greater than the natural force – anthropocene. Deforestation is defined by the Oxford Advances Learner’s Dictionary as ‘the act of cutting down or burning the trees in an area’ with the perfect word example of ‘land erosion caused by widespread deforestation’

 

As mentioned in some of my previous posts with the changes of forest cover, major services delivered by the rainforest ecosystem are affected negatively such as the regulation of the climate, the storing of carbon, the supply of water and the highest biodiversity richness that describes the biome (J. A. Foley et al., 2005). So why do people keep deforestation rainforests in an unsustainable manner?

 

On a global scale, deforestation is responsible for an 80% loss of previously forested land. Deforestation is the main threat to rainforests around the world. An astounding 90% of the rainforest in western Africa has been lost due to deforestation since the 19^th century. The rainforests in the other 2 major regions (South America and South Eastern Asia) have also been destructed by deforestation (WPF).

 

The causes of Deforestation are similar across the world. Bjorn Lundgren (1985) pointed out that at a national level, people need to clear new land for agriculture and wood for various purposes. Nonetheless, subsistence farming accounts for a small portion of the rainforest destruction. Most of deforestation occurs for commercial agriculture such as the conversion of rainforest to Palm Oil (Figure 1) plantations in Southeast Asia and the soybean plantations in the Amazon basin.
 

Figure: Oil palm plantation adjacent to native rainforest (TBP)

 

Logging (Figure 2) has an important role in forested land loss. Even though it was designed to be a sustainable way of harvesting trees in most cases it is not true. In Southeast Asia, there is a high number of tree species that can be logged (10-20 /ha) leaving a heavily destructed ecosystem with this practice. In addition to this logging can have collateral damage to the rainforest by clearing some spaces for the tracks and platforms (Y. Malhi et al., 2013).
 

Figure 2: Tree felled (illegal logging) in Masoala National Park, Madagascar (WildMadagascar)

In the South American rainforests one of the primary cause of deforestation is the clearing of land for cattle pasture or as some may call it ‘hamburger ranches’ (Figure 3). The Brazilian Amazon was reduced in forested land by 38% from 1966-1975 for cattle ranching. By 2003 Europe’s imports of processed meat was 74% from Brazil from which 80% was coming from the Amazon (R. A.Butler, 2010). In 2010 the extent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached the area of 740 000km² (M. Egler et al., 2013).
 

Figure 3: Brazilian beef barons claim to be protecting Paraguay's Indian lands – by turning them into ranches (theguardian)
 

Deforestation methods include the process of ‘slush and burn’ which is the cutting of trees in addition to burning them to reduce to clear the land. These localised fires may sometimes escape their original plot resulting to devastating effects by reducing the forested land and hindering local activities due to the black smoke (R. A. Butler, 2010).

 

Other causes of deforestation include open cast mining (Figure 4) where large areas of forest were cleared for their subsistence, fuel wood and building material (Amazon Basin 1980s) (R. A. Butler, 2010). Colonisation has also played an important role in the well-being of rainforests. Vast areas of rainforests across the world where exploited by the arrival of the invaders.
 

 

Figure 4: Explosion at a mine in the Amazon Rain Forest, Ecuador (ConstructionPhotography)
 

The map on Figure 5 shows the change in forested areas over the period of 2000-2012. The area of the tropics exhibit the loss forest at the rate of 2101 km²/yr. A reduction in deforestation was observed in Brazil but the increasing loss of forest in other countries around the world offset this reduction (M. C. Hansen et al.,2013) You can use the software to look in to the areas in more detail here.

 

Figure 5: The map shows forest change from 2000-12. Green areas are forested; red suffered forest loss; blue showed forest gain; pink experienced both loss and gain (BBC)

It is estimated that there is a linear relationship with deforestation and economic growth. There is some hope that with different environmental policies deforestation will be reduced (J. Hargrave & K. Kis-Katos, 2013) In my next post I will be discussing the effects of deforestation.