Deforestation: Biological Concepts

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Table of Contents

Level of Organization
Analysis
Relationship to Topic
D. Characteristics of Life
Impact on Health
References

Level of Organization

Deforestation has an adverse impact on humans, wildlife, and ecosystems, with its influence traceable at different biological levels of organization.

However, deforestation is most commonly explored within the context of its impact on the ecosystem context. As a result of forests’ destruction for the purposes of agricultural development and urbanization, the overall climate is altered. Consequently, animal and plant species located in former woods become extinct, with wildlife diversity plummeting and species being displaced.

On the level of ecosystem, deforestation reduces the quality of waters in streams and rivers located near forests because soil nutrients are removed through leaching. This disrupts the waters’ ecosystem as the species residing in them cannot handle sudden changes to their environment. The atmosphere also duffers because of the increase in greenhouse emissions from burning trees and the reduction in photosynthesis intensity.

Analysis

The three biological concepts/processes essential to life relevant to the topic of deforestation include sensitivity or response to the environment, homeostasis, and adaptation.

Sensitivity or response to the environment (stimuli) entails the reaction of diverse living beings to different changes in their surroundings, such as plants dying as a response to high temperatures during forest fires.

Homeostasis represents the adequate functioning of a living organism irrespective of environmental shifts due to their capacity to preserve their internal conditions.

Adaptation is the capacity of living organizations to adjust to environmental changes without disrupting their life and reproductive cycle.

Relationship to Topic

Sensitivity or response to environmental stimuli is closely connected to deforestation because the latter leads to a significant disruption in the living beings’ surroundings. Some organisms and animals cannot survive when forests are destroyed, with their responses ranging from moving to another livable area to becoming extinct.

Homeostasis is essential to consider in the context of deforestation because forests are essential for creating balance for living beings.

Finally, adaptation is relevant to the topic of deforestation because the elimination of forests enables living species to adapt to the new environment.

D. Characteristics of Life

Among the discussed concepts, homeostasis is significantly affected by environmental problems like deforestation. The forest ecosystems exist in a state of homeostasis, with different organisms interacting with one another to sustain stability and the natural life cycle.

With deforestation, the state of homeostasis is disrupted because there is no longer a steady climate, there are changes in water, temperature, plant and animal populations, and nutrient cycles (Nguyen, 2019).

Besides, it is projected that when deforestation reaches a critical threshold, especially in tropical forests that are affected the most, there will be severe halts in water recycling mechanisms, leading to the advancement of savanna regions (OpenLearn, 2022). The state of homeostasis inherent in the tropical forests’ ecosystems will thus get disrupted severely.

Impact on Health

Adaptation is not always feasible because as a result of deforestation both human and environmental wellbeing change when trees are destroyed. Forests provide ecosystems that add to the well-being of humans and reduce their social vulnerability, which is why they should be taken into account when planning adaptation policies (Locatelli & Pramova, n.d.).

When forests are destroyed, beings’ adaptation is imperative to help minimize the adverse impact of the destruction on humans’ health. More knowledge on the ecological processes is necessary to determine whether ecosystems can adjust to the environments and whether their vulnerability will progress.