Yadvinder Malhi, professor of Ecosystem Science at the Oxford University, explains the climate change risks associated with deforestation.
About Yadvinder Malhi
"I am a Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford, and I study the living world, how it works and how it changes.
I am an ecosystem scientist who explores the functioning of the biosphere and its interactions with climate change. I am the Director of the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests which addresses major issues facing tropical forests, and lead the Ecosystems Programme of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford, which does diverse research on ecosystems."
What is happening to Earth’s ecosystems?
Earth’s ecosystems have been changing throughout human history; They began to change as soon as humans started evolving and interacting with ecosystems. Some of the earliest changes occurred when humans expanded out of Africa; As humans migrated across other continents and onto islands, they started hunting out the large animals, the megafauna and pushed certain species to extinction.
More recently, however, the rate of change in ecosystems has been accelerating. The most significant factor driving this change is the conversion of natural ecosystems into agriculture and cattle land. This loss of natural habitat, in turn, is causing a decline of these ecosystems and their biodiversity. Yet, as we move forward through the 21st century, an additional agent of change is coming. Climate change affects ecosystems that are even more remote and otherwise removed from the immediate loss of habitat due to deforestation and the like. Climate change, unfortunately, implies a much broader range of effects.
Key Points
• A lot of the functioning of the biosphere is determined by what happens in the tropics. Tropics contain much of the carbon stored in living biomass globally, and a lot of water and rainfall circulates through tropical forests.
• Ecosystems that reach a tipping point may begin to accelerate climate change. Currently, the land biosphere absorbs around a quarter of the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel emissions, and acts as a moderate brake on the rate of climate change.
• Humans have been deforesting and changing forests since the dawn of agriculture. However, throughout the 20th century, these frontiers have moved into wilderness areas that were relatively unaffected or difficult to transform such as the rainforests.
• We can't lose the vast treasure houses in the tropics where agricultural frontiers are expanding, and most of the deforestation is currently taking place. It's also worth reminding that Europe and North America are the most deforested landscapes on Earth.
