In terms of nutrient cycling, why does timber harvesting in a temperate forest cause less ecological devastation than timber harvesting in tropical rain forests?
A) Trees are generally smaller in temperate forests, so fewer nutrients will be removed from the temperate forest ecosystem during a harvest.
B) Temperate forest tree species require fewer nutrients to survive than their tropical counterpart species, so a harvest removes fewer nutrients from the temperate ecosystem.
C) The warmer temperatures in the tropics influence rain forest species to assimilate nutrients more slowly, so tropical reforestation is much slower than temperate reforestation.
D) There are far fewer decomposers in tropical rain forests so turning organic matter into usable nutrients is a slower process than in temperate forest ecosystems.
E) Typical harvests remove up to 75% of the nutrients in the woody trunks of tropical rain forest trees, leaving nutrient-impoverished soils behind.
