What is the importance of trees?

Trees are useful in the following ways:

1.       Trees provide shelter to every type of animal and birds particularly. The birds and other animals are the parts of different chains and the trees are the natural habitat for them. Generally, trees are the bird’s habitat because they build nest in every trees. Nest is their place of living, though there are other nests that are not suitable to build in trees for other birds.

2.       The trees provide a smoothening effect to our eyes. It reduces the atmospheric glare and gives us a feeling of protection and comfort. Too much light that our eyes receive may lead us to sight blur and sometimes headache. Trees help us to lessen the brightness of the light coming from the sun. The green canopy of the trees assures us about the food, shelter and prosperity.

3.       The increased moisture due to transpiration reduces the temperature substantially and thus gives relief to us in hot and dry climatic conditions. Consider the trees around during a hot and dry climate; observe that they reduce the heat of the atmosphere around us. For example, the cover of trees on the west side of a house restricts the direct sunlight to the walls and thus reduces the heat transfer to the inside house and thus reduces the air conditioning load.

4.       They consume the sound waves and thus reduce the noise pollution. Trees block some sound waves and deflect some of it during its travel. This reduces the unnecessary noise we don’t want to hear. Noise pollution has become a menace these days and trees provide a simple solution to it.

5.       They absorb the air polluting gases like SO_x and NO_x and the S.P.M. which is also harmful to every health of a living organism. The trees absorb these gases to prevent the intoxication of air around us and also prevent these gases to mix to the air we breathe. The leaves of the trees get damaged by these air pollutant or harmful gases coming from factories and other materials but they clean the air and thus trees help us.

6.       At the time of rainfall the canopy of the trees hold the drops of the rainfall and reduce their momentum and thus reduce the erosion of soil. They also delay the rain from reaching to the earth and thus reduce the flood intensity. At the time of flood they reduce the velocity of storm water and thus the soil erosion and other destructions. The trees are very useful for preventing soil erosion and flood in some areas which has weak soils and land.

7.       Roots of the trees hold the soil firmly. In desert areas where high velocity wind blows the trees stop the movement of soil by holding it firmly and by decreasing the velocity of winds. Thus the trees stop desertification which affects some land areas and irritate others.

8.       They absorb the subsoil moisture that is of no use and pump it to the atmosphere by transpiration. This increases the relative humidity (R.H.). Relative humidity is the ration of available moisture present at any temperature to the maximum moisture the air can contain (hold) at the temperature. For example if air can contain 3 grams of water at 20°C at saturation and if there is 1.5 gm of moisture present in some air sample at 20°C it shall be termed as 50% R.H. Means the desire of moisture is 50% satisfied only. Now when the clouds come and the air in that area has only 50% R.H. most of the water present in the clouds may be exhausted to bring the R.H. to 100% so that precipitation may start. In some cases there may be no rainfall in such case. Had the R.H. of that air been 90% (say improved by the trees) there would have beem rainfall. Like this the trees are helpful in rainfall.

9.       They produce many useful products like fruits, wood, timber, fiber, gum, herbs and other eatables.

10.   They consume the carbondioxide in the presence of sunlight and make oxygen. Oxygen is already abundant in the atmosphere but this reduction of CO₂ is much more important as the CO₂ is the main culprit of Global warming. The global warming is harmful in so many ways like increasing the sea level by melting of polar ice resulting in the drowning of many cities. It is leading to uncomfortable temperatures and increase of vector borne diseases.