Amazon Rainforest Flashcards
Where is the Amazon?
Located in South America, it occupies 68% of Brazil, and smaller parts of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname
How many trees are in the Amazon?
300 billion
How large is the Amazon?
Covers 8.2 million km squared
Why is the Amazon important?
Worlds largest rainforest ecosystem, Amazon river is the largest example of freshwater runoff on earth (15-20% of the total), world’s largest drainage basin
How much rain per year does the Amazon get?
3000mm
What is the average temperature?
28 degrees Celsius
How much of total rainfall is intercepted?
75%
How is the rain water used?
50% used by plants and eventually returned to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, the other 50% is infiltrated through the soil or flows overland into nearby channels
How much freshwater is discharged into the Atlantic each second?
175,000 cumecs
How much of the water is recycled within the ecosystem rather than flowing straight back out?
50-80% (the cycle is fast and complex)
Where does moisture released into the atmosphere by evapotranspiration effect?
Rainfall in the USA, Europe and SE Asia
What effect could deforestation have on the water cycle?
May cause increases in surface runoff, this may lead to greater levels of flooding
How much of all biomass stored carbon in the planet does the amazon store?
20%
Why is the rainforest known as the lungs of the earth?
Plants conduct photosynthesis, releasing Oxygen and locking in carbon.
Why are some plants a long term carbon store?
Old plants
What is doe the rainforest regulate?
Global atmospheric carbon levels
What effect does deforestation have on the carbon cycle in the Amazon?
Soil being un consolidated and therefore spoil erosion. This removes the soil stored carbon and can wash it into the water systems.
How much rainforest has been lost over the last 50 years and what mainly by?
17%, 80% of which is due to cattle ranching
What was the problem with the Brazilian governments colonisation in the 1960s?
Large scale projects to exploit resources, road construction (eg. 400 km trans Amazon road), opened up large areas of previously inaccessible forest to activities like logging
What happened in parts of the Amazon basin in 2005 and 20010?
Droughts, eg. 2010 event lowered the Rio Negro upstream from manaus, isolating local people who depended on the river for transport, forest fires occur releasing large stores of carbon in the biomass
What does deforestation do?
Alters transpiration and albedo levels which leas to reduced precipitation because there is a lower level of atmospheric humidity. This impact is local and global
What is the effect of hydroelectric power generation?
Large hydroelectric damns built on rivers (eg. Rio Tocantins), flooded large areas and changing the way water flows through the basin
What is being done to replace deforested areas?
Afforestation, crops planted to replaced deforested areas, will fix some carbon and conduct some evapotranspiration but at a much lower rate than rainforest vegetation, this is often only temporary as well as crops are harvested and removed
What effect will climate change have on the Amazon?
Destruction of amazons coastal mangroves, more rapid transfers in the water cycle as plants grow more vigorously, by 2080 many current species may not be viable in the Amazon due to temperatures, shutting the cycle down
