Human Infulences
By: Daniel Malone
The biggest threat to the Boreal Forest, or Taiga, are humans. We are looking to get oil from these areas, which causes a problem for the trees, plants, and animals. Another problem caused by us is logging, or deforestation. Since most of the trees in the Boreal Forest are slow-growing, any logging done in the area causes a threat to all the surrounding nature. Luckily, the forests are being protected and have no sign of current human land use. Unfortunately, there still some areas of the forest that haven't grown back from previous human use.
Another way the Boreal Forest is being harmed is acid rain. Scientists have discovered that air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels is the main cause of acid rain. Smoke and chemicals from nearby plants rise into the atmosphere and combine with the moisture in the air to form acid rain. Acid rain doesn't directly kill trees. It limits the nutrients available to them, or poisons them with toxic substances slowly released from the soil. Once the trees are weakened, they can be easily attacked by insects and diseases, which ultimately kill them.
The acid rain also affects humans in a couple of different ways. It gets into the soil, which poisons a farmer's crops, causing him not to have any food. It also pollutes the water, causing the same thing to happen to fisherman, as the chemicals will infect the fish. This influences humans in a negative way, because on the future, there will be no food to eat and water to drink. The plants will die out, causing the main source of energy for animals to be taken away, which will kill all animals, leaving no food for the humans.