Amazon Rainforest Flashcards
What is the average discharge of water into the Atlantic Ocean from the Amazon?
175,000 m3/s (15% of the fresh water entering oceans each day)
Which river is 100m deep and 14km wide near its mouth?
Rio Negro
Where is the mouth of the Rio Negro?
Manus, Brazil
What is the average rainfall across the whole Amazon rainforest?
2,300mm
What is the average rainfall in the in the north western portion of the Amazon basin?
6000mm
Why does only half of this rainfall never reach the ground?
intercepted by forest canopy and re-evaporated into the atmosphere.
Where does additional water come from?
Evaporation from ground and rivers and transpiration from leaves.
How much of the rainfall evapotranspired falls back as rain?
48%
30% of rainfall reaches the sea. What happens to the other 70%?
Caught up in a constant loop system.
What was the rate of deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest between 2000 - 2007?
19368 km 2 per year (an area if forest larger than Greece.)
What percentage of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to deforestation and land use?
75% (59% from loss of forest and burning in the Amazon)
What do slash and burn techniques do?
reduces retention of humidity in top soil to 1 meter.
sudden evaporation previously retained in canopy.
increases albedo ( reflectiveness) and temp.
reduces porosity of soil - a faster rainfall drainage, erosion and silting.
What happens to the carbon store if forests are lost?
All released into the atmosphere.
How much more solar radiation does the tropical rainforest absorb compared to pasture land?
11%
Which has the higher temperature - rainforest or pasture land?
Rainforest 24.1 degrees C
Pasture 33 degrees C
Is the moisture content in the upper one meter of soil of pasture higher or lower than the rainforest?
15% less
What can deeper forest roots do?
Pump more moisture to the surface, producing 20 - 30 % more air humidity and 5 - 20% more precipitation than pastures
What is the mean temperature increase every ten years since the mid-70’s
0.26 degrees +/- 0.05 g degrees
What are the predicted temperature increase in the Amazon by 2050
2 - 3 degrees C
There were falling amounts of rainfall between 1920’s and 1970’s. What has happened since
No significant change
According to WWF how much Amazon rainforest has already been lost?
20%
By 2030 what is the predicted % loss of rainforest if deforestation continues at the current rate?
27%
The rate of loss is also impacted by climate change. What effect does climate change have on the forest?
Species intolerance to increased temperature, drought and seasonality. Sustainability by altering the conditions needed for growth. Drought and high temp kill millions of trees.
A 2 degrees c temperature rise above pre-industrial levels will have what impact in the Amazon?
20 - 40 % of Amazon will die off in 100 years.
A 3 degree c rise will destroy 75% of the forest over the following century. (4 degree rise - 85%)
How much Carbon is contained in the upper 50cm of the Amazonian soil layer?
4 - 9 kg
How much Carbon is contained in the upper 50cm of the pasture soil layer?
1kg /m2
What happens to the soils when forests are cleared and burned?
30 - 60% of carbon lost to atmosphere
Unburned Vegetation decays and lost in 10 years.
Fungi and bacteria that recycled dead vegetation dies off
What happens to the soils after forest clearance first occurs?
Heavy rainfall washes away top soil, attacks deep weathered layers below.
Soil washed into rivers before forest clearance has caused a reduction in the rainfall.
What do the changes in total precipitation, extreme rainfall and seasonality lead to?
- Reduction in river discharge
- Increase in silt which will disrupt river transport routes
- Flash flooding
- Destroy fresh water ecosystems which could remove a source of income and protein to inhabitants.
What will be the result of warming water temperatures?
- kill off temp dependent species
- change the biodiversity of rivers
- reduce water-dissolved oxygen concentrations which could destroy eggs and larva
Who are ACTO?
Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation to promote harmonious development
What is TARAPOTO?
A process to help achieve harmonious forest development.
Mitigation to reduce effects of environmental change in Amazonian.
Name 2 (and size) of national parks and forest reserves?
Tumucumaque National Park (3.84 million hectares
Para Rainforest reserve (15 million hectares)
Mitigation to reduce effects of environmental change in Amazonian.
What can be produced to reduce the need for sugar cane production?
Forest biofuel could compete with ethanol from sugar can by 2030.
Mitigation to reduce effects of environmental change in Amazonian.
How can reforestation support?
Much of Brazil’s industrial timber comes from planted forests which make up only 2% of the forest area.
Mitigation to reduce effects of environmental change in Amazonian.
How will re introducing native species be a positive change?
Enrichment of already degraded forests by reintroducing the native species.
How big is the Amazon Rainforest?
670 million hectares
Spread across 9 countries
The biggest Rainforest
How many trees are in the Amazon Rainforest?
300 billion
15,000 species
How much carbon do the trees in the Amazon store?
1/5 of all the carbon in the planets biomass
How many people live in the Amazon?
34 million
How much carbon did UFZ estimate the Amazon stored in 2019?
76 billion tones
How big is the carbon sink at the Amazon?
1-3 GtC/year
How much has the forest been increasing in above ground biomass each year?
0.3-0.5%
What is rising productivity of TRFs due to?
Increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere
How much CO2 was the Amazon carbon sink absorbing in 2019?
600 million tones per year
How much CO2 was the Amazon carbon sink absorbing in the 1990s?
2 billion tones per year
