Erosion
Deforestation in Indonesia
The satellite images of forest area in Indonesia indicate that between 2000 and 2008, almost 10% of forest cover on the islands has been lost. About one fifth of the loss has occurred precisely in areas where logging is restricted or prohibited. The satellite images are intended as a support for Indonesia, the objectives set by the United Nations REDD program, which aims to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.
These tropical forests are of great importance both nationally and globally. They live a large number of species that depend for their livelihood on the resources offered by these ecosystems, in addition to means of subsistence for local communities. Finally, sequester large amounts of carbon and thus help to mitigate climate change.
Indonesia has the third largest area of ??tropical forests worldwide. On the other hand, also suffer very high levels of deforestation. To alleviate this problem, Indonesia has reached agreements with various countries. To reduce deforestation will require accurate data on the state of forests, including how much carbon forests and how they retain their forest cover change.
The best method to control the change of Indonesia’s forest cover is the use of optical remote sensing data from developed through satellites. But the Indonesian climate, which is often cloudy, undermines the work, because satellite images are too dark. Can be used in those cloudy days, low resolution images but do not provide sufficient detail to accurately assess forest cover.
Therefore, researchers are combining high-resolution images from the Landsat satellite images from NASA with less detailed sensor on the Terra satellite, also from NASA. With this method, it is estimated that 5.39 million hectares of forests were lost between 2000 and 2008, ie 9.2% of the original forest cover in Indonesia in 2000.
Most of this forest loss has occurred in two provinces, Central Kalimantan and Riau. In addition, 20.1% of deforestation has occurred in limited production forest (13.6%), in protected areas (2.1%) or watershed protection areas (4.4%), all areas them where logging is restricted or prohibited. Thus, deforestation in Indonesia can be easily reduced if these areas are monitored better.
Posted in Climate Change, Erosion | 
Tags: carbon forests, climate change, Deforestation, forest degradation, Indonesia's forest, tropical forests | 
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Soil Contamination
The soil tends to evolve to even be able to form a complex, moving to a layered structure and species composition, precisely under the influence of living beings.
But like the atmosphere (air pollution), the soil may also be affected by pollution, which, as you can imagine-called right of soil.
Soil contamination
There are two types of pollution that may affect the structure and formation of soil: natural pollution (which is often endogenous) and anthropogenic pollution (totally exogenous).
As we know, and as discussed at the beginning of this note, the various natural phenomena can be important causes of soil contamination.
To give just one example, an active volcano may be able to provide larger amounts of foreign substances and polluting coal-fired several together.
But to conduct a good study of soil contamination, you must define the maximum allowable levels of pollutants, and analyze factors that may influence the soil response to these agents. So do not just enough to detect the presence of contaminated soil.
This means that there contaminants in soil, there may be potentially harmful to all living beings because they can degrade and reduce the number of species in regard to the vegetation in the soil, or ingestion and dermal contact by man.
Posted in Erosion | Tags: levels of pollutants, polluting coal, Soil Contamination, vegetation, volcano | 1 Comment »
The Erosion of the Earth’s Surface
Called “erosion” to a series of natural processes of physical and chemical nature that deplete and destroy the soil and rocks of the crust of a planet, in this case, Earth.
Land erosion is the result of the combined action of several factors such as temperature, gas, water, wind, gravity, and plant and animal life. In some regions dominated any of these factors, like wind in dry areas.
Also, and more recently, accelerated erosion occurs as the result of human action, whose effects are felt in a much shorter time period. Without human intervention, these soil losses due to erosion would be offset by the formation of new soil in most parts of the Earth.
What causes the Erosion on the Earth’s surface:
Weathering
Chemical weathering
Soil types
Fluvial erosion
Wind erosion
Glacial erosion
Coastal erosion
Biological erosion
The human impact on the environment
The Threats to Forests| Soil Erosion
Often, the result of deforestation is soil erosion. When there are no trees covering the ground, the rain hits the ground directly instead of gradually leaking from the branches and fall gently on the forest floor. This means that when it rains, more water hits the ground harder, dragging. On the floor of most forests, there is a layer of organic material such as decaying leaves and wood, which absorbs water. The rain can be absorbed by this layer rather than slip on the floor.
Extensive erosion can cause landslides. Many of these landslides on denuded hillsides start or at the bottom of logging roads inclined. The rain water collects in these areas and this concentrated flow begins to drag the ground. At the same time as the trees have been removed from these areas, which means that the floor itself is already unstable. The roots of the trees are responsible for maintaining the soil in place, functioning as a framework that prevents it from being eroded. When trees are cut, it is common that the roots remain in the soil, but they eventually rot. This results in a large increase in the number of landslides that occur 10 to 20 years after the trees have been felled in an area.
When it has been eroded the top soil is much more difficult to grow new plants, and lack of roots to stabilize leads to more erosion. Once erosion starts, it is very difficult to repair the damage. In the case of major landslides, all the soil above the bedrock is dragged down, dragging equally to all trees and other vegetation. Since there is no soil to grow new plants, the landslide bare footprints remain visible for hundreds of years. Therefore, erosion is a serious long term threat to forests – without soil, vegetation can not grow. After a landslide, it takes hundreds of years before to build up enough soil to replace the former topsoil and organic material.
Often, the soil washed into streams and rivers. Fish and other freshwater animals need clean water, soil eroded and this destroys their habitat. Many forest streams where fish were once abundant are now ruined due to excessive sediment. These currents, more often, are near deforested areas, which may be areas of extensive erosion due to loss of forest cover.