Deforestation In Brazil
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.