Amazon Rainforest

Question 1

How much of earth’s photosynthesis do tropical rainforests account for?

Answer 1

30-50%

Question 2

How much of earth’s surface do tropical rainforests cover

Answer 2

6%

Question 3

How much of the Amazon basin has been lost in the last 50 years?

Answer 3

17%

Question 4

What have been the biggest causes of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest?

Answer 4

Cattle ranching - 65-70%
Small scale, subsistence agriculture - 20-25%
Large scale, commercial agriculture - 5-10%
Logging, legal and illegal - 2-3%
Fires, mining, urbanisation, road construction, dams - 1.2%

Question 5

How many species live in the Amazon rainforest?

Answer 5

15,000

Question 6

Give some examples of endangered species that live in the Amazon

Answer 6

• Amazonian manatee (an aquatic mammal)
• Black caiman (a reptile)
• Pirarucu (fish)

Question 7

How many trees are there in the Amazon rainforest?

Answer 7

300 billion

Question 8

How much of the planet’s biomass store of carbon does the Amazon rainforest hold?

Answer 8

1/5

Question 9

What is the total area of the Amazon rainforest?

Answer 9

5.5 million km2

Question 10

What is the water table?

Answer 10

The boundary between saturated rock and unsaturated rock

Question 11

What is brackish water?

Answer 11

mix between salt water and fresh water

Question 12

When does a salt water intrusion occur?

Answer 12

when the water table has gone down either due to abstraction or transpiration, therefore seawater is able to infiltrate into the ground

Question 13

How much CO2 does the Amazon rainforest absorb each year?

Answer 13

600 million metric tons

Question 14

How much CO2 does the Amazon rainforest absorb compared to 20 years ago?

Answer 14

Less than half as much

Question 15

How can deforestation in the Amazon affect the wider world?

Answer 15

Deforestation reduces the amount of water in the atmosphere, which affects regional precipitation patterns, and can cause droughts beyond the Amazon

Question 16

What is the name for trees that output more water than they receive through their roots

Answer 16

Desiccated trees - absorb less C02, and are more susceptible to forest fires

Question 17

Explain the edge to area tipping point theory

Answer 17

1. When an area becomes deforested, the trees that were once there are no longer able to transpire, so the area will experience droughts and eventually desertification
2. As the rate of deforestation increases, the edge to area ratio increases, therefore the amount of forest exposed to wind and agricultural runoff increases.
3. Forests exposed to stronger wind facilitate greater levels of evaporation, from both soil and leaves, which lead to desiccated trees that are more susceptible to forest fires and absorb less CO2
4. The overall resultant effect is a reduction in forest cover, leading to less evapotranspiration and hence droughts and potential desertification
5. This will lead to a tipping point where forests become carbon sources rather than carbon sinks, as their own destruction fuels further destruction

Question 18

Give 5 examples of local mitigation strategies

Answer 18

1. Selective logging
2. Brazilian forest code - landowners have to keep 50-80% of their land as forest
3. Central Amazon Conservation Complex - protects biodiversity in an area of 49,000 km2 whilst allowing locals to use the forest sustainably
4. Peru plans to restore 3.2 million hectares of forest by 2020
5. Para Rainforest reserve (150,000 km2)

Question 19

Give 5 examples of global mitigation strategies

Answer 19

1. CITES agreements bans the logging of mahogany
2. FSC manages forest development sustainably
3. Debt for nature swaps
4. COP28
5. Paris agreement