The amazon rainforest- water an carbon case study

Question 1

The amazon rainforest is what?

Answer 1

The worlds largest rainforest and the largest river basin on the planet.

Question 2

The region is believed to be home to what?

Answer 2

10% of known species on earth. - It has 300 billion trees and 15000 species one-fifth of all the carbon in the planets biomass.

Question 3

Today the amazon is facing what threats?

Answer 3

The amazon is facing a magnitude of threats as a result of unsustainable economic development; 20% of the Amazon biome has already been lost and the trend will worsen if gone unchecked.

Question 4

what does the WWF estimate?

Answer 4

that 27%, more than a quarter of the amazon biome, will be without trees by 2030 if the current rate of deforestation continues.

Question 5

What is Brazil responsible for?

Answer 5

Brazil is responsible for half of the deforestation in the Amazon, but deforestation in Andean Amazon countries, Bolivia and Peru is increasing.

Question 6

what are the Amazonian governments to design?

Answer 6

“zero net deforestation” plans, create awareness of the issues around deforestation, and recognise peoples and local communities’ rights.

Question 7

how much carbon is stored in the amazon forests?

Answer 7

Between 80-120 billion tonnes of carbon.

Question 8

Along with other tropical rainforests around the globe what does the amazon form?

Answer 8

Forms a carbon sink of 1-3 GtC/ year.

Question 9

A study in 2015 shown that the amazon is losing its capacity to do what?

Answer 9

It is losing its capacity to absorb C02 from the atmosphere. - from a peak of two billion tonnes of C02 each year in the 1990s, the net uptake by the forest has halved and for the first, has been taken overtaken by fossil fuel emissions in Latin America.

Question 10

What has the increase in C02 lead to what for the amazon?

Answer 10

Led to a growth spurt for the Amazons trees; in time however, the growth stimulation feeds through the system, causing trees to live faster, and so die younger. This has led to a surge in the rate of trees dying across the amazon.

Question 11

What is the water discharge by the amazon into the Atlantic ocean?

Answer 11

175,000m3/s or around 15 per cent of freshwater entering the oceans each day.

Question 12

The Rio Negro tributary of the amazon is what?

Answer 12

Is the second largest river in the world in terns of water flow, and is 100m deep and 14km wear its mouth at Manuas, Brazil.

Question 13

What is the average rainfall across the Amazon basin?

Answer 13

2,300 mm annually

Question 14

Half of this rainfall may never touch the ground, why is this?

Answer 14

It is intercepted by the forest canopy and re- evaporated into the atmosphere.

Question 15

Additional water does what?

Answer 15

Additional water evaporates from the ground and rivers or is released into the atmosphere by transpiration from the plant leaves.

Question 16

During 2000-2007 the Brazilian Amazon was deforested at a rate of what?

Answer 16

19,368km2 per year. During this time, an area of forest larger than Greece was destroyed.

Question 17

Brazil is the forth largest climate polluter, how does this effect the amazon?

Answer 17

75 per cent of their greenhouse gas emissions attributed to deforestation and land use change; 59 per cent of this is from loss of forest and burning in the amazon.

Question 18

How does the removal of trees using slash and burn effect the atmosphere?

Answer 18

• Reduces the retention of humidity in the soils top layer down to a depth of one metre.
• facilitates sudden evaporation of water previously retained in the forest canopy.
• increases albedo- (reflectiveness) and temperature.
• increases porosity of soil, causing faster rainfall drainage, erosion and silting of rivers and lakes.

Question 19

what does any moisture that evaporates from deforested areas form?

Answer 19

They form shallow cumulous clouds which usually do not produce rain.

Question 20

The salts and organic fibres that forests emit are essential for both the water and the carbon cycle, why ?

Answer 20

These act as condensation nuclei and assist in cloud and rain formation. Their loss inhibits the formation of cloud and reduces rainfall. - If destroyed the vast carbon store will be released into the atmosphere.

Question 21

differences between tropical rainforest and the pasture land it is replaced with?

Answer 21

• Forests absorb approximately 11 per cent more solar radiation.
• The average temperature in the rainforest is approximately 24.1 degrees and pastures it is 33 degrees.
• The moisture content in the upper one metre of pasture soil is about 15 per cent less than under nearby forest.

Question 22

vegetation change- what did a study in 2009 conclude?

Answer 22

That 2 degree temperature rise above pre- industrial levels would see 20-40 % of the amazon die within 100 years. A 3 degree rise would see 75 % of forest destroyed by drought over the following century. And a 4 degree rise would kill 85%