Here is a term paper on ‘Forests’ for class 7, 8, 9 and 10. Find paragraphs, long and short term papers on ‘Forests’ especially written for school students.
Term Paper on Forests
Term Paper Contents:
- Term Paper on the Introduction to Urban Forests
- Term Paper on the Social, Psychological, Recreational, Wildlife of Urban Forests
- Term Paper on the Economic Benefits of Urban Forest
- Term Paper on the Urban Forestry
- Term Paper on Urban Forestry in the United States
- Term Paper on Urban Forestry in Toronto
- Term Paper on the Constraints to Urban Forestry
1. Term Paper on the Introduction to Urban Forests:
An urban forest is a forest or a collection of trees that grow within a city, town or a suburb. In a wider sense it may include any kind of woody plant vegetation growing in and around human settlements. In a narrower sense (also called forest park) it describes areas whose ecosystems are inherited from wilderness leftovers or remnants. Care and management of urban forests is called urban forestry.
Urban forests play an important role in ecology of human habitats in many ways:
i. They filter air,
ii. Water, sunlight,
iii. Provide shelter to animals and
iv. Recreational area for people.
They moderate local climate, slowing wind and storm water, and shading homes and businesses to conserve energy. They are critical in cooling the urban heat island effect, thus potentially reducing the number of unhealthful ozone days that plague major cities in peak summer months.
In many countries there is a growing understanding of the importance of the natural ecology in urban forests. There are numerous projects underway aimed at restoration and preservation of ecosystems, ranging from simple elimination of leaf-raking and elimination of invasive plants to full-blown reintroduction of original species and riparian ecosystems.
The benefits of urban trees are many, including beautification, reduction of the urban heat island effect, reduction of storm water runoff, reduction of air pollution, reduction of energy costs through increased shade over buildings, enhancement of property values, improved wildlife habitat, and mitigation of overall urban environmental impact.
2. Term Paper on the Social, Psychological, Recreational, Wildlife:
The presence of trees reduces stress, and trees have long been seen to benefit the health of urban dwellers. The shade of trees and other urban green spaces make place for people to meet and socialize and play. The Biophilia hypothesis argues that people are instinctively drawn to nature, while Attention. Restoration Theory goes on to demonstrate tangible improvements in medical, academic and other outcomes, from access to nature. Proper planning and community involvement are important for the positive results to be realized.
Trees provide nesting sites and food for birds and other animals. People appreciate watching, feeding, photographing, painting urban trees, and wildlife. Urban trees and wildlife help people maintain their connection with nature.
3. Term Paper on the Economic Benefits of Urban Forest:
The economic benefits of trees have been understood for a long time. Recently, more of these benefits are becoming quantified. Quantification of the economic benefits of trees helps justify public and private expenditures to maintain them. One of the most obvious examples of economic utility is the deciduous tree planted on the south and west of a building.
The shade shelters and cools the building during the summer, but allows the sun to warm it in the winter after the leaves fall. “Businesses flourish, people linger and shop longer, apartments and office space rent quicker, tenants stay longer, property values increase, new business and industry is attracted” by trees.
The physical effects of trees — the shade (solar regulation), humidity control, wind control, erosion control, evaporative cooling, sound and visual screening, traffic control, pollution absorption and precipitation — all have economic benefits.
Air Pollution Reduction:
As cities struggle to comply with air quality standards, the ways that trees can help to clean the air should not be overlooked. The most serious pollutants in the urban atmosphere are ozone, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfuric oxides (SOx) and particulate pollution. Ground-level ozone, or smog, is created by chemical reactions between NOx and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. High temperatures increase the rate of this reaction.
Vehicle emissions, emissions from industrial facilities, gasoline vapours, and chemical solvents are the major sources of NOx and VOCs. Particulate pollution, or particulate matter (PM10 and PM25), is made up of microscopic solids or liquid droplets that can be inhaled and retained in lung tissue causing serious health problems.
Most particulate pollution begins as smoke or diesel soot and can cause serious health risk to people with heart and lung diseases and irritation to healthy citizens. Trees are an important, cost-effective solution to reducing pollution and improving air quality.
Trees Reduce Temperatures and Smog:
With an extensive and healthy urban forest air quality can be drastically improved. Trees help to lower air temperatures and the urban heat island affect in urban areas. This reduction of temperature not only lowers energy use, it also improves air quality, as the formation of ozone is dependent on temperature.
1. As temperatures climb, the formation of ozone increases.
2. Healthy urban forests decrease temperatures, and reduce the formation of ozone.
3. Large shade trees can reduce local ambient temperatures by 3 to 5°C.
4. Maximum mid-day temperature reductions due to trees range from 0.04°C to 0.2°C per 1 per cent canopy cover increase.
5. In Sacramento County, California, it was estimated that doubling the canopy cover to five million trees would reduce summer temperatures by 3 degrees. This reduction in temperature would reduce peak ozone levels by as much as 7 per cent and smoggy days by 50 per cent.
Lower Temperatures Reduce Emissions in Parking Lots:
Temperature reduction from shade trees in parking lots lowers the amount of evaporative emissions from parked cars. Un-shaded parking lots can be viewed as miniature heat islands, where temperatures can be even higher than surrounding areas. Tree canopies will reduce air temperatures significantly. Although the bulk of hydrocarbon emissions come from tailpipe exhaust, 16 per cent of hydrocarbon emissions are from evaporative emissions that occur when the fuel delivery systems of parked vehicles are heated.
These evaporative emissions and the exhaust emissions of the first few minutes of engine operation are sensitive to local microclimate. If cars are shaded in parking lots, evaporative emissions from fuel and volatilized plastics will be greatly reduced.
1. Cars parked in parking lots with 50 per cent canopy cover emit 8 per cent less through evaporative emissions than cars parked in parking lots with only 8 per cent canopy cover.
2. Due to the positive effects trees have on reducing temperatures and evaporative emissions in parking lots, cities like Davis, California, have established parking lot ordinances that mandate 50 per cent canopy cover over paved areas.
‘Cold Start’ Emissions:
The volatile components of asphalt pavement evaporate more slowly in shaded parking lots and streets. The shade not only reduces emissions, but reduces shrinking and cracking so that maintenance intervals can be lengthened. Less maintenance means less hot asphalt (fumes) and less heavy equipment (exhaust). The same principle applies to asphalt-based roofing.
Active Pollutant Removal:
Trees also reduce pollution by actively removing it from the atmosphere. Leaf stomata, the pores on the leaf surface, take in polluting gases which are then absorbed by water inside the leaf. Some species of trees are more susceptible to the uptake of pollution, which can negatively affect plant growth. Ideally, trees should be selected that take in higher quantities of polluting gases and are resistant to the negative affects they can cause.
A study across the Chicago region determined that trees removed approximately 17 tonnes of carbon monoxide (CO), 93 tonnes of sulfur dioxide (SO2), 98 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and 210 tonnes of ozone (O3) in 1991.
Carbon Sequestration:
Urban forest managers are sometimes interested in the amount of carbon removed from the air and stored in their forest as wood in relation to the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere while running tree maintenance equipment powered by fossil fuels.
Interception of Particulate Matter:
In addition to the uptake of harmful gases, trees also act as filters intercepting airborne particles and reducing the amount of harmful particulate matter. The particles are captured by the surface area of the tree and its foliage. These particles temporarily rest on the surface of the tree, as they can be washed off by rainwater, blown off by high winds, or fall to the ground with a dropped leaf.
Although trees are only a temporary host to particulate matter, if they did not exist, the temporarily-housed particulate matter would remain airborne and harmful to humans. Increased tree cover will increase the amount of particulate matter intercepted from the air.
i. Large evergreen trees with dense foliage collect the most particulate matter.
ii. The Chicago study determined that trees removed approximately 234 tonnes of particulate matter less than 10 micrometres (PM10) in 1991.
iii. Large healthy trees greater than 75 cm in trunk diameter remove approximately 70 times more air pollution annually (1.4 kg/yr) than small healthy trees less than 10 cm in diameter (0.02 kg/yr).
Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds:
One important thing to consider when assessing the urban forest’s effect on air quality is that trees emit some biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). These are the chemicals (primarily isoprene and monoterpenes) that make up the essential oils, resins, and other organic compounds that plants use to attract pollinators and repel predators.
As mentioned above, VOCs react with nitrogen oxides (NOx) to form ozone. BVOCs account for less than 10 per cent of the total amount of VOCs and BVOCs emitted in urban areas. This means that BVOC emissions from trees can contribute to the formation of ozone. Although their contribution may be small compared with other sources, BVOC emissions could exacerbate a smog problem.
Trees that are well adapted to and thrive in certain environments should not be replaced just because they may be high BVOC emitters. The amount of emissions spent on maintaining a tree that may emit low amounts of BVOCs, but is not well suited to an area, could be considerable and outweigh any possible benefits of low BVOC emission rates.
Trees should not be labelled as polluters because their total benefits on air quality and emissions reduction far outweigh the possible consequences of BVOC emissions on ozone concentrations. Emission of BVOCs increase exponentially with temperature. Therefore, higher emissions will occur at higher temperatures. In desert climates, locally native trees adapted to drought conditions emit significantly less BVOCs than plants native to wet regions.
As discussed above, the formation of ozone is also temperature dependent. Thus, the best way to slow the production of ozone and emission of BVOCs is to reduce urban temperatures and the effect of the urban heat island. The most effective way to lower temperatures is with an increased canopy cover.
These effects of the urban forest on ozone production have only recently been discovered by the scientific community, so extensive and conclusive research has not yet been conducted. There have been some studies quantifying the effect of BVOC emissions on the formation of ozone, but none have conclusively measured the effect of the urban forest. Important questions remain unanswered.
For instance, it is unknown if there are enough chemical reactions between BVOC emissions and NOx to produce harmful amounts of ozone in urban environments. It is therefore, important for cities to be aware that this research is still continuing and conclusions should not be drawn before proper evidence has been collected. New research may resolve these issues.
4. Term Paper on the
Urban Forestry:
Urban forestry is the careful care and management of urban forests, i.e., tree populations in urban settings for the purpose of improving the urban environment. Urban forestry advocates the role of trees as a critical part of the urban infrastructure. Urban foresters plant and maintain trees, support appropriate tree and forest preservation, conduct research and promote the many benefits trees provide.
Urban forestry is practiced by municipal and commercial arborists, municipal and utility foresters, environmental policymakers, city planners, consultants, educators, researchers and community activists.
Management Goals and Objectives of Urban Forestry:
Management goals should be based on an understanding of public attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge, a review of the agents in change, and the expressed needs and concerns of the community. These goals should be compared to a dynamic or temporal description of the resource based from inventory and management objectives.
Functions and Values of Urban Forestry:
Function, the dynamic operation of the forest, includes biochemical cycles, gas exchange, primary productivity, competition, succession, and regeneration. In urban environments, forest functions are frequently related to the human environment. Trees are usually selected, planted, trimmed, and nurtured by people, often with specific intentions, as when a tree is planted in a front yard to shade the driveway and frame the residence.
The functional benefits provided by this tree depend on structural attributes, such as species and location, as well as management activities that influence its growth, crown dimensions, and health. Urban forest functions are thus often oriented toward human outcomes, such as shade, beauty, and privacy.
People develop emotional attachments to trees that give them special status and value. Removing hazardous trees can be difficult when it means severing the connection between residents and the trees they love. For many, feelings of attachment to trees in cities influence feelings for preservation of trees in forests.
Urban forests improve air quality, absorb rainwater, improve biodiversity and potentially allow recycling to 20 per cent of waste which is wood-based.
The social and even medical benefits of nature are also dramatic. Urban poverty is common to areas lacking green spaces. Visiting green areas in cities can counteract the stress of city life, renew vital energy. Simply being able to see a natural view out of the window improves self-discipline in inner city girls.
Having regular access to woodland is desirable for schools, and indeed Forest kindergartens take children to visit substantial forests every day, whatever the weather. When such children go to primary school, teachers observe a significant improvement in reading, writing, mathematics, social skills and many other areas.
Challenges of Urban Forestry:
Urban forestry is a practical discipline, which includes tree planting, care, and protection, and the overall management of trees as a collective resource. The urban environment presents the arboricultural challenges of limited root and canopy space, poor soil quality, deficiency or excess of water and light, heat, pollution, mechanical and chemical damage to trees, and mitigation of tree-related hazards.
Management challenges include maintaining a tree and planting site inventory, quantifying and maximizing the benefits of trees, minimizing costs, obtaining and maintaining public support and funding, and establishing laws and policies for trees on public and on private land. Urban forestry presents many social issues that require addressing to allow urban forestry to be seen by the many as an advantage rather than a curse on their environment. Social issues include under funding and lack of management.
5. Term Paper on Urban Forestry in the United States:
History:
Tree warden laws in the New England states are important examples of some of the earliest and most far-sighted state urban forestry and forest conservation legislation.
In 1896, the Massachusetts legislature passed the first tree warden law, and the other five New England states soon followed suit:
i. Connecticut,
ii. Rhode Island, and
iii. New Hampshire in 1901, Vermont in 1904, and Maine in 1919.
As villages and towns grew in population and wealth, ornamentation of public, or common, spaces with shade trees also increased. However, the ornamentation of public areas did not evolve into a social movement until the late 18th century, when private individuals seriously promoted and sponsored public beautification with shade and ornamental trees. Almost a century later, around 1850, institutions and organization were founded to promote ornamentation through private means.
In the 1890’s, New England’s ‘Nail’ laws enabled towns to take definitive steps to distinguish which shade trees were public. 1890 Massachusetts Acts and Resolves stated that a public shade tree was to be designated by driving a nail or spike, with the letter M plainly impressed on its head, into the relevant trunk. Connecticut passed a similar law in 1893, except its certified nails and spikes bore the letter C.
In the United States, federal urban forestry policy is overseen by the USDA Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture. Much of the work on the ground is performed by non-profits funded by private donations and government grants.
Policy on urban forestry is less contentious and partisan than many other forestry issues, such as resource extraction in national forests.
6. Term Paper on Urban Forestry in Toronto:
Toronto is a diverse city with a mosaic urban forest — a patchwork of unique situations made up of trees growing in the many residential yards, lining the public streets, and beautifies public parks. Unlike the trees that grow in a wild setting, urban trees are faced with harsh conditions that can be a detriment to their health and growing potential.
Soil compaction, air pollution, habitat fragmentation and competition from invasive species are some of the hardships city trees endure. Some neighbor hoods have a geriatric tree population; many mature trees that will reach the end of their lifespan very soon, with few young trees to replace them.
Some neighbourhoods suffer a serious lack of species diversity, with mainly ornamental, non-native or invasive tree species such as Bradford pear, Japanese tree lilac and Norway maple. Still other neighbourhoods, most often newly constructed subdivisions, lack tree cover completely.
Simply planting more trees cannot solve the problems faced by the urban forest. Through creative and innovative approaches the public, partnered with private enterprises can maximize the potential benefits of trees planted, and minimize the stresses they will have to overcome.
Although most people express a concern for urban trees and consider them very important, many lack the basic knowledge and skills needed to address and prevent the issues listed above. Collective action, or inaction, will make or break the future of the urban forest. Through fostering a sense of ownership amongst Toronto residents for this commonly owned resource, residents will enjoy better air quality and reduce their demand for energy.
7. Term Paper on the Constraints to Urban Forestry:
Resolving limitations will require coordinated efforts among cities, regions, and countries.
Loss of green space available growing space is limited in city centres. This problem is compounded by pressure to convert green space, parks, etc. into building sites.
Harsh growing conditions that makes tree survival an achievement. Lack of information on the tolerances of urban tree cultivars to environmental constraints. Poor tree selection which leads to problems in the future poor nursery stock and failure of post-care. Limited genetic diversity too have working tree inventories and very few communities have urban forest management plans. Lack of public awareness about the benefits of healthy urban forests and poor tree care practices by citizens and untrained arborists.