Deforestation In Brazil Essay, Research Paper

In one of the major regions of deforestation, the province of Rhondonia, Brazil,

the rainfall has been severely and or completely stopped. Theory: As the

tropical rainforest of Rhondonia, Brazil is leveled for farmland, rainfall is

significantly and directly reduced. Rainfall is reduced because there are fewer

trees to return water vapor to the air through tree transpiration, or water

evaporation through trees. Relative humidity is the amount of water vapor in the

air compared with the amount of vapor needed to make the air saturated at the

air?s current temperature. The point past saturation is precipitation, or

rainfall. If deforestation is the cause of decreased rainfall, then decreased

average relative humidity will be evident. Experimental Design: In order, to

isolate deforestation as the primary factor causing decreased rainfall, tests

will be conducted to measure relative humidity. A sling psychrometer will be

used to gain these measurements. http://www.taftan.com/thermodynamics/HYGROMT.HTM

It is used to measure the amount of moisture in the air. The dry-bulb

thermometer measures the air temperature, and the wet-bulb measures the lowest

temperature that can be obtained by evaporating water into the air at constant

pressure. A calculator will be used to convert to relative humidity. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/elp/wxcalc/rh.html

El Paso National Weather Service Office’s weather calculator This converter will

take the wet-bulb temperature, the air temperature and the current uncorrected

pressure and calculates the relative humidity and dewpoint. Please enter your

air temperature and then choose either Fahrenheit or Celsius. Fahrenheit Celsius

Please enter your wet-bulb temperature and then choose either Fahrenheit or

Celsius. Fahrenheit Celsius Please enter your actual station pressure (not sea

level pressure) and then choose either millibars or inches of Mercury. Millibars

Inches of Mercury Relative humidity measurements will be taken every day for one

year. The measurements will be taken at different stations in the rainforest.

Four stations will be located no further than 10 miles from current areas of

deforestation. Four other stations will be located at the interior of the

rainforest, and at least 50 miles from recent deforestation. After these

measurements are taken, they will be analyzed in three different ways. Run

Experiment: The daily measurements were tracked for one year. Comparison 1 – The

recent relative humidity measurements of the rainforest will be compared to

previous figures of relative humidity. The average off all relative humidity

measurements will be compared to the relative humidity of the rainforest before

this experiment. Comparison 2 ? Recent relative humidity measurements of

different regions of the rainforest will be compared. Measurements from areas

near to sites of deforestation will be compared to measurements from sites

further from areas of deforestation. Comparison 3 ? Measurements towards the

end of the study will be compared to measurements at the end of the study.

Average relative humidity measurements for the first month of the study will be

compared to the average from the last month. Analysis: Comparison 1 – Taking the

average of all measurements and comparing it to the average relative humidity

from the prior year it was found that the average relative humidity had dropped

one percent. Comparison 2 ? Taking the average of each stations relative

humidity, it was found that all stations within 10 miles from deforestation had

an average of two percent lower that stations at least 50 miles from

deforestation. Comparison 3 ? Taking the average relative humidity for the

last month from all stations and comparing it to the first months average it was

found that the average had dropped .5 percent over the year. Conclusion: The

findings suggest that deforestation is affecting the amount of rainfall in

Brazil. The deforestation will not only continue to affect rainfall but will

lead to increased global warming as evaporative cooling decreases. Evaporative

cooling takes place when solar energy, or heat, is used to convert water from

trees to water vapor or humidity.