*articles In biology, the term species refers to all organisms of the same kind that are potentially capable,

under natural conditions, of breeding and producing fertile offspring. The members of a species living in a given area at the same time constitute a population. All the populations living and interacting within a particular geographic area make up a biological (or biotic) community. The living organisms in a community together with their nonliving or abiotic environment make up an ecosystem. In theory, an ecosystem (and the biological community that forms its living component) can be as small as a few mosquito larvae living in a rain puddle or as large as prairie stretching across thousands of kilometers. Read more: Biological Community - Species, Organisms, Living, and Forest - JRank Articles http://science.jrank.org/p ages/874/BiologicalCommunity.html#ixzz1nf Men4bR http://science.jrank.org/p ages/874/BiologicalCommunity.html *food logging Logging is one of the most prominent and best-known forms of rainforest degradation and destruction. Despite improved logging techniques and greater international awareness and concern for the rainforests, unsustainable logging of tropical rainforests continuesmuch of it practiced illegally by criminal syndicates. In the late 1990s, after depleting much of their own timber stocks, Asian logging companies

began aggressively moving into rainforest areas including northeastern South America (Guyana, Suriname); the Brazilian Amazon; the Congo Basin of Central Africa; the South Pacific, particularly the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea; and Central America. Chinese timber firms have been particularly active of late, after the government banned domestic logging in much of the country following catastrophic flooding in 1998. With a construction boom fueling demand for wood, China has recently been linked to logging in Africa, the Amazon, Burma, and Indonesia. Typical logging operations are quite damaging to the rainforest ecosystem. Problems stem from the nature of limited-term timber concessions, which encourage shortterm resource depletion, and poor forest planning and management. Corruption is rife in many tropical timber-producing countries, making existing forestry laws nearly unenforceable, while lack of transparency in commercial transactions means that corrupt officials can grant concessions to cronies without regard for the environment or consideration of local people. The structure of the rainforest itself where no one species dominates and attractive timber trees are widely dispersedmeans that it can simply be more profitable to clear- cut forest. Even without

clear-cutting, the construction of logging roads to reach forest resources is destructive in the its own right and encourages settlement of previously inaccessible forest lands by speculators, land developers, and poor farmers. Studies by the Environmental Defense Fund show that areas that have been selectively logged are eight times more likely to be settled and cleared by shifting cultivators than untouched rainforests because of the access granted by logging roads. Research has found a high correlation between the presence of logging roads and consumption of "bushmeat"wild animals hunted as food. http://rainforests.mongaba y.com/0807.htm *shelter In the simplest terms, when a habitat is destroyed, the plants, animals, and other organisms that occupied the habitat have a reduced carrying capacity so that populations decline and extinction becomes more [3] likely. Perhaps the greatest threat to organisms and biodiversity is the [4] process of habitat loss. Temple (1986) found that 82% of endangered bird species were significantly threatened by habitat loss. Endemic organisms with limited ranges are most affected by habitat destruction, mainly because these organisms are not found anywhere else within the world and thus, have

less chance of recovering. Many endemic organisms have very specific requirements for their survival that can only be found within a certain ecosystem, resulting in their extinction. Extinction may take place very long after the destruction of habitat, however, a phenomenon known as extinction debt. Habitat destruction can also decrease the range of certain organism populations. This can result in the reduction of genetic diversity and perhaps the production of infertile youths, as these organisms would have a higher possibility of mating with related organisms within their population, or different species. One of the most famous examples is the impact upon China's Giant Panda, once found across the nation. Now it's only found in fragmented and isolated regions in the south-west of the country, as a result of widespread deforestation in the 20th [5] Century. and A forest ecosystem is a terrestrial unit of living organisms (plants, animals and microorganisms), all interacting among themselves and with the environment (soil, climate, water and light) in which they live. The environmental "common denominator" of that forest ecological community is a tree, who most faithfully obeys the ecological cycles of energy, water, carbon and nutrients. A forest ecosystem would be considered having boundaries and would include a forest of

trees out to the limit of tree growth. Remember that forests are not the only ecosystems. There are hundreds of thousands of defined and undefined ecosystems that can cover the broadest to the tiniest of areas. An ecosystem can be as small as a pond or a dead tree, or as large as the Earth itself