How does Deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest affect the Carbon Cycle?
The Carbon Cycle is the flow of carbon through organisms. Trees in the Amazon Rainforest play an essential rule in this flow.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release it back through cellular respiration.
20% of the trees of the Amazon had been cut out in these last four decades (Wallace).
These losses increase the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because there are less trees to absorb carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can raise the temperature because of the green house effect. Carbon dioxide is a green house gas; therefore, carbon dioxide traps heat inside the Earth's atmosphere.
Higher concentration of carbon dioxide means that more heat is trapped which leads to higher temperatures.
In WWF Global, it is stated that "models suggest that by the year 2050, temperatures in the Amazon will increase by 2–3°C."