The importance of plants and their distribution in the environment is undeniable. In global Carbon stocks alone there is over 2,477 Gt C of Carbon stored by plants. This Carbon will stay in these forests and grasslands if they are not altered by Anthropogenic forces. However, when these lands are altered they release the stored carbon and add to the already excessive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is compounded by the carbon dioxide that would have been removed via the uptake from these plants in their attempts to create the glucose that sustains their lives. To add to this, carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas effected by land-use changes and deforestation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has sited both methane and nitrous oxide as gases "influenced by land use, land-use change, and forestry activities." Unfortunately there is no uncertainty about the current state of deforestation and land-use changes in the world. Our population is explosive and as the cities grow they require more space, wood and food. This results in the deforestation of large areas of land.
Deforestation has increased across the globe. In Washington, the need for lumber is the driving force behind deforestation. In Asia it is the need for space, and in South America it is the need for food. To compound this global trend the deforestation is increasing every year. Our use of forests are comparable to that of our use of oil but, unlike oil, we do know how much forest we have left and our current rate of consumption is far beyond our reserves.
Along with anthropogenic deforestation is that which is caused by global warming. The forests are being forced to move do to the increases in heat and resulting lack of water. This can be seen in the pictures below. The first shows how, do to higher temperatures and lower snowpack trees are starting to climb mountains and grow at higher and higher elevations. Following this picture is one of a desert landscape that used to be a forest but following a drought and continued high temperatures the forest has receded.
Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry. IPCC. 2000
Global Warming, Impacts, Forests. EPA. 2005
