The Amazon Basin is the largest continuous region of tropical forest in the world, containing nearly 31 percent of the world total. Tropical deforestation has a major impact on the carbon cycle and has profound implications for biological diversity. Deforestation increases atmospheric carbon dioxide and other trace gasses, possibly affecting climate. While occupying less than 7 percent of the terrestrial surface, tropical forests provide homes to half or more of all plant and animal species. As a result, an additional adverse effect of tropical deforestation is massive extinction of species including large numbers of vascular plant species.
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This Landsat Thematic Mapper color composite image of southern Rondonia state, Brazil, illustrates areas of deforestation. Among other effects, deforestation increases atmospheric carbon dioxide and other trace gases, possibly affecting climate.
