Deforestation: • Deforestation is the ____ removal of trees from a biome. • The tropical rainforest biome is the most affected by ____. • Globally, rainforests are disappearing at about ____ hectares per minute, day and night. • Trees are felled to extract valuable timber, or the forest is burned to clear land for ____, ____ and ____ plantations and ____. • In developing countries such as Brazil, the need to repay ____ has led to an increase in the production of cash crops for export. • These cash crops are grown on ____ land. • ____ is also responsible for deforestation as are ____ and road-building projects such as the ____. Impact: • Once an area of forest is cut, the natural ____ for wildlife is severely reduced and species begin to become ____. • Many animals and insects in the rainforest have not been clearly ____ yet and as more of the rainforest is destroyed, the ____ to study and identify these animals is lost. • ____ is lost and the entire ____ is damaged. • The loss of many species of plants is a serious cause for concern as some contain ____ that could one day lead to cures for serious ____ such as cancer and AIDS. Nutrients: • We already get many common ____ from different species of tree, e.g. aspirin. • About ____ percent of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants. • ____ comes from a tropical vine and is used as an ____ and to relax muscles during surgery. • When a forest is cleared, the ____ is destroyed. • Cutting the forest removes the source of ____ from the O ____. • The heavy daily convectional rain then quickly leaches any remaining ____ out of the soil, making it ____. The remaining ____ soil is washed away by heavy rain. • In addition, because of the ____ temperatures in the ____ region, the exposed soil is baked into a hard, ____ surface that cannot support plant growth. • It is then known as a ____ soil, which is useless for farming. • The ____, ____ content and ____ content of the latosol are depleted. • In ____ areas such as Indonesia, soil ____ occurs within days of forest clearance, reducing the ____ of the soil even more. Water Cycle: • Deforestation affects ____ and ____ patterns in the forested area and beyond. • In the forest water cycle, moisture is ____ by rainforest plants and ____ into the atmosphere. • This moisture forms rain clouds before ____ as rain back onto the forest. • When the forests are cut down, ____ moisture is released into the ____ resulting in the formation of ____ rain clouds. • Subsequently, there is a ____ in rainfall affecting the rainforest and areas further away. • The area then experiences ____. Without rainfall the area can become ____ within a few years due to the strong tropical sun baking down on the scrubland. • For example, ____ is today a red, treeless desert due to ____ of deforestation.

Biome: Deforestation

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