A resource booklet for a forestry cooperative includes Fig. 1, a satellite-image interpretation of a forest frontier in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The pale rect...
Question 1 Report
A resource booklet for a forestry cooperative includes Fig. 1, a satellite-image interpretation of a forest frontier in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The pale rectangular blocks are recently cleared land, while the darker textured areas are remaining tropical rainforest. A new road crosses the study area and connects a timber depot to a river port. Local people depend on forest products, but the cooperative is concerned that rapid clearance will affect both biodiversity and the global climate. Use the evidence in Fig. 1.
(a) Identify two pieces of evidence from Fig. 1 that indicate commercial logging is taking place. [3]
(b) Describe the pattern of forest clearance shown in Fig. 1. [4]
(c) Which global climate process is directly affected when rainforest trees are burned? [5]
(d) Explain how deforestation in this area can contribute to global warming and affect people living downstream. [8]
Answer Details
(a) Evidence of commercial logging includes the timber depot, a road linking forest to the depot, rectangular cleared blocks, and the river route to a port. Any three pieces of evidence. [3]
(b) Clearance occurs in rectangular blocks. The blocks are within or at the edge of remaining forest, several lie close to the new road, and clearance is fragmented rather than one continuous cleared area. [4]
(c) The directly affected global process is the carbon cycle. Burning trees releases carbon dioxide, while fewer trees means less carbon dioxide is removed by photosynthesis. This enhances the greenhouse effect, causing global warming and climate change. [5]
(d) Trees are cut and often burned, releasing stored carbon dioxide. Fewer trees absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, so atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentration rises and more outgoing heat is retained. Global warming can alter rainfall intensity. Locally, loss of canopy increases runoff and soil erosion; sediment and polluted runoff can reduce downstream river-water quality and increase flood risk. [8]
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