Deforestation of Rondonia, Brazil (with dates), from 1975 to 2001
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002100/a002116/index.html

Joycelyn Thomson, Darrel Williams, NASA GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA/GSFC


Throughout much of the 1980s, deforestation in Brazil eliminated
more than 15,000 square kilometers (9000 square miles) per year.
That pace has only increased through the 90s and into the 21st
century.
Brazil is also home to more than a quarter of Earths tropical
forests. Considering that the band of lush green that circles the
globe through many equatorial nations is fundamental to the
overall health of the whole planets environment, careful
monitoring of forest health in the tropics is essential. Tropical
forests act as major carbon sinks, places where ambient carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere can be absorbed by growing things and
sequestered for years. Definitive evidence shows that excess
carbon dioxide can contribute to the greenhouse effect and speed
global warming. Similarly, tropical forests also act as a primary
producer of oxygen. In the respiration process that absorbs
gaseous carbon dioxide, trees and other plants give off oxygen.
It is for these and a host of other reasons why scientists and
policy makers need to monitor and forestall wholesale
deforestation.
This sequence shows how profligate clear cutting can influence
that trust. Data gathered over time by several in the Landsat
series of spacecraft shows enormous tracts of forest disappearing
in Rondonia, Brazil. This territory underwent an enormous rise in
population towards the end of the twentieth century, buoyed by
cheap land offered by the national government for agricultural
use. As you see the visualization progress, it is useful to note
how the human phenomenon of deforestation generally works,
especially in the dense tropical forests of Brazil. Systematic
cutting of a road opens new territory to potential deforestation
by penetrating into new areas. Clearing of vegetation along the
sides of those roads tends to fan out to create a pattern akin to
a fish skeleton. As new paths appear in the woods, new areas
become vulnerable. The spaces between the skeletal bones fall
to defoliation, and another inch of the Earths biological rudder
is no longer reliably steering the planet into the future.

This description of a site outside SERC has not been vetted by SERC staff and may be incomplete or incorrect. If you have information we can use to flesh out or correct this record let us know.



Subject: Biology
Grade Level: College Lower (13-14), Graduate/Professional, College Upper (15-16)Keywords: Rondonia, GCMD--Location--Brazil, Deforestation, HDTV, Landsat-2-MSS, Landsat-5-MSS, Landsat-4-TM, Landsat-7-ETM+