Normal usage for affect/effect is that something is making changes to something else, where X does something to Y. X affects Y, and Y feels the effects of X. In this case, it’s always the case that affect is the verb and effect is the noun describing the result of what is affected.
Effect as a verb means “to cause to happen, to cause to be,” and the absurdity of a given thing that affects something else effecting it when the wrong verb is used produces some laughable sentences. Trees can be affected by soil nutrient depletion, drought, lack of sunlight, etc., but “only God can effect a tree,” to paraphrase Joyce.
Affect as a noun is nearly always an affectation. There are three rare uses: (1) synonymous with mien, countenance, (2) synonymous with pose or “expression assumed for misleading purposes,” and (3) the general shape and growth format of a plant, particularly a tree or shrub, synonymous with habit. (Both “affect” and “habit” are specialized uses of words generally meaning something quite different when used by botanists and landscape architects in this usage.)