ENV 1301 [FINAL] CH9 – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
What is the FCS, and what do they do?
answer
Forest Stewardship Council - An organization that examines the practices of firms and rate them against criteria for sustainability. - Considered to have the strictest standards.
question
How much of the Earth's land surface do forests cover?
answer
Forrest cover 31% of the Earth's land surface.
question
How do forests 'help'?
answer
- They provide habitat for countless organisms. - Help maintain soil, air, and water quality; and plays key roles in our planet's biogeochemical cycles. - Provide humanity with wood for fuel, construction, paper, etc.
question
How is a 'forest' defined?
answer
Any ecosystem with a high density of trees.
question
What types of forests exist?
answer
-Most of the world's forests occur as boreal forest or tropical rainforest. -Temperate deciduous forests, temperate rainforests, and tropical dry forests also cover large regions.
question
Why does the nature of the plant community vary from region to region within each forest biome?
answer
-Differences in soil and climate.
question
What is a 'forest type'?
answer
Categories defined by their predominant tree species. - The eastern United States contains [10] forests types. - The western United States contains [13] forest types.
question
How are forests ecologically complex?
answer
- Their structural complexity and their capacity to provide many niches for organisms, forests comprise some of the richest ecosystem for biodiversity. - Various animals subsist on the leaves, fruits, and seeds that trees produce, or find shelter in the cavities of trees. - Tree canopies are full of life, and understory shrubs and ground cover plants provide shelter. - On the forest floor, leaf litter nourishes the soil, and a multitude of soil organisms helps to decompose plant material and cycle nutrients.
question
What are 'old - growth' forests?
answer
- Natural forests that have developed over a long period of time without experiencing severe disturbance. - These forests host more biodiversity than younger forests.
question
What are some ecosystem services that forests provide?
answer
- As plants grow, their roots stabilize the soil and help to prevent erosion. - When rain falls, leaves and leaf litter slow runoff by intercepting water. This helps to prevent flooding, helps water soak into the ground to nourish roots and recharge aquifers, reduces soil erosion and helps keep streams and rivers clean. - Forest plants also filter pollutants and purify water as they take it up from the soil and release it to the atmosphere in transpiration. - Plants produce the oxygen that we breathe, regulate moisture and precipitation patters, and moderate climate. - Trees' roots draw minerals up from deep soil laters and deliver them to surface soil layers where other plants can use them. - Plants also return organic material to the topsoil in the form of litter.
question
How do forests store carbon?
answer
- Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis and then store carbon in their tissue. - When plant matter is burned or when it decomposes, carbon dioxide is release - and thereafter less vegetation remains to soak it up. [CO2 worsens global climate change]
question
What are some other economically valuable resources that forests provide?
answer
Plants for medicines, dyes, and fibers. Animals, plants, and mushrooms for food, as well as wood from trees.
question
What is deforestation?
answer
Occurs when trees are removed more quickly than they can regrow. Is defined as the 'clearing and loss of forests'.
question
What are some of the negative effects of deforestation?
answer
Deforestation causes biodiversity loss, soil degradation and desertification, worsens climate change by adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and disrupt the ecosystem services that support our society.
question
How much forest are we eliminating per year?
answer
- We are eliminating 13 million ha [32 million acres] of forest across the world each year. Subtracting annual regrowth from that number makes for an annual net loss of about 5.2 million ha [abt. 13 million acres]
question
Has the rate of deforestation risen or declined in the last decade?
answer
The rate is lower than it was in the 1990s... 20.5 million acres where lost world wide each year.
question
What are primary forests?
answer
Natural forest uncut by people.
question
What are second - growth trees?
answer
Trees that sprinted after 0ld-growth timber was cut. Second growth trees characterize secondary forest.
question
Where is deforestation rapidly occurring?
answer
In developing countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, and West Africa.
question
What is a concession related to forests?
answer
- A concession is a right granted to extract a resource. - Some conservation organizations are buying concessions and using them to preserve forest rather than cut it down.
question
Forest loss accounts for what percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions? What is this number comparable to?
answer
12-25% - comparable to as much as all the world's vehicles emit.
question
What is the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation [REDD] ?
answer
A program whereby wealth industrialized nations would pay poorer developing nations to conserve forest. Under this plan, poor nations would gain income while rich nations would receive carbon credits to offset their emissions.
question
Who are Foresters, and what do they do?
answer
Professionals who manage forests through the practice of forestry. They balance our society's demand for forest products against the central importance of forests as ecosystem.
question
What is Resource Management?
answer
Describes our use of strategies to manage and regulate the harvest of potentially renewable resources.
question
What does Sustainable Resource Management involve?
answer
Harvesting the resources we have in ways that do not deplete them. They are guided by research in the natural sciences, as well as by social, political, and economic factors.
question
What is maximum sustainable yield? What is it's aim?
answer
- A guiding principle in resource management. - Its aim is to achieve the maximum amount of resource extraction without depleting the resource from one harvest to the next. - In forestry it argues for cutting trees shortly after they go through their fastest stage of growth. - This practice maximizes timber production over time, but it alters forest ecology and eliminates habitat for species that rely or mature trees.
question
What is Ecosystem-Based Management? What is it's aim?
answer
- Aims to minimize impact on the ecological processes that provide the resource.
question
What is Adaptive Management, and what does it involve?
answer
- Involves systematically testing different approaches and aiming to improve methods through time. - For managers, it entails monitoring the results of one's practices and adjusting them as needed, based on what is learned.
question
What are system forest reserves, and why were they formed?
answer
- Public lands set aside to grow trees, produce timber, protect water quality, and serve as insurable against scarcities of lumber. - First formed because of a fear of 'timber famine'.
question
U.S. National Forest System
answer
- 77 million ha [191 million acres] - Managed by the U.S. Forest Service. -Covers over 8% of the nation's land area.
question
U.S. Forest Service
answer
Established in 1905 under Gifford Pinchot.
question
Most timber harvesting in the United States take place where?
answer
- Most timber harvesting takes place on private land owned by the time industry or by small landholders. - In an average year about 2.1% of U.S. forest acreage is cut for timber.
question
What is clear - cutting?
answer
- A harvest method in which all trees in an area are cut at once. - It is cost - efficient and, to some extent, can mimic natural disturbance events such as fires, tornadoes, or windstorms.
question
What are selection systems?
answer
- A harvest method that preserves much of a forest's structural diversity. - Less cost efficient for the industry.
question
What does the term 'even-aged' mean?
answer
- All trees in given stand are planted at the same time. - All trees are the same age.
question
What are forest plantations?
answer
- Plantation forests make up 7% of the world's forests. - This is where even-aged trees are grown.
question
National Forest Management Act
answer
- Passed by the U.S. Congress in 1976. - Mandated that every national forest draw up plans for renewable resource management. - Carefully manage timber harvesting. - Monitor fish and wildlife populations. - Allow diverse recreation - hiking - fishing - boating - and more - in specific areas. - Prohibit livestock grazing, protect historic and archaeological sites, and build no new roads. - Maintain habitats for threatened plants and animals; restore wetlands, streams, forests, and soils; and protect stands of old-growth forest.
question
How do wildfires hurt/help tree growth?
answer
- Some plants have seeds that germinate only in response to fire. - Ecosystems dependent on fire are adversely affected when fire is suppressed. - Grasslands are invaded by shrubs, whereas pine woodlands become cluttered with hard wood understood. - Fire suppression allows libs, logs, sticks, and leaf litter to accumulate on the forest floor, producing kindling for a catastrophic fire.
question
What are prescribed burns?
answer
- To reduce fuel loads, protect property, and improve the conditions of forests, land management agencies burn areas of forest intentionally under carefully controlled conditions.
question
What is Salvage Logging?
answer
The removal of dead trees, or snags, by timber companies following a natural disturbance.
question
What are some reasons people establish parks and protected areas?
answer
- Scenic reasons. - Parks are able to generate revenue from ecotourism. - Offers peace of mind, health, exploration, - Reserves protect biodiversity. These islands of habitat maintain species, communities, and ecosystems.
question
The Wilderness Act
answer
- Passed in 1964 by the U.S. Congress. - Allowed some areas of existing federal lands to be designated as wilderness areas.
question
What are wilderness areas?
answer
- Areas off-limits to development but open to hiking, nature study, and other low impact recreation. - 5% of the U.S. land area.
question
Land Trusts
answer
Local or regional organizations that purchase land to preserve in its natural condition.
question
Biosphere Reserves
answer
Tracts of land with exceptional biodiversity that couple preservation with sustainable development to benefit local people.
