Chapter 8: The Forest And The Trees

Kolbert introduces chapter eight with a quote by Miles Silman about how trees are often overlooked and people appreciate their physical characteristics. She is with Silman and they are in eastern Peru, at the edge of the Andes. Silman studies forest communities and the ways that climate in the tropics have changed in the past and the direction they are going in the future. In terms of the issue with global warming, people only believe that it is affecting the arctic because of the obvious and drastic decrease of ice and rising sea levels. Nevertheless, Kolbert explains that global warming is affecting rainforests just as much. The latitudinal diversity gradient is the rise in species of trees as you go south from the north pole into the tropics. The tropics is rich in diversity due to many theories. For example, the book states, “According to this line of reasoning, what’s important about the tropics is that temperatures are relatively stable. Thus tropical organisms tend to possess relatively narrow thermal tolerances.” (153) This shows that the tropics are so diverse because of their stability. Organisms of the tropical rainforest adapt to conditions such as climate and this allows for more species to be established. Global  warming can be threatening to this system because the slightest change in climate will be a major hindrance to the thousands of different species of rainforests. This chapter connects to the theme, humans alter natural systems. Species- area relationship is a pattern that shows how the larger the area you sample, the greater the number of species will be found. SAR helps when thinking about extinction it takes into account the size of an area. Deforestation is a major problem that is done when humans cut down trees for their own use. Kolbert states, “Let’s say the grassland was home to a hundred species of birds. If half of the grassland were eliminated-- converted into farmland or shopping malls-- it should be possible to calculate, using the species-area relationship, the population of bird species that would be lost.” (166) Ultimately, this represents that humans are contributing to extinction of different species when they take away the habitats of animals.