8. The Amazon Basin Today.
Answers
Answer:
At large scale, Amazon forests have experienced accelerated growth and mortality for decades, with a long-term increase in biomass carbon stocks within remaining intact forests. The results suggest that the tropical biome has been responding for many years to large-scale drivers of atmospheric and climatic change.
Amazon basin:
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about 6,300,000 km² (2,400,000 sq mi), or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana (France), Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Geography:
- The Amazon River begins in the Andes Mountains at the west of the basin with its main tributary the Marañón River and Apurimac River in Peru. The highest point in the watershed of the Amazon is the second biggest peak of Yerupajá at 6,635 metres (21,768 ft). It is largest basin and is located in Peru
- With a length of about 6,400 km (4,000 mi) before it drains into the Atlantic Ocean, it is one of the two longest rivers in the world. A team of scientists has claimed that the Amazon is longer than the Nile, but debate about its exact length continues.
- The Amazon system transports the largest volume of water of any river system, accounting for about 20% of the total water carried to the oceans by rivers.
- Some of the Amazon rainforests are deforested because of an increase in cattle ranches and soybean fields
- The Amazon basin formerly flowed west to the Pacific Ocean until the Andes formed, causing the basin to flow eastward towards the Atlantic Ocean
- Politically the basin is divided into the Peruvian Legal Amazonia, Brazilian Legal Amazônia, the Amazon region of Colombia and parts of Bolivia, Ecuador and the Venezuelan state of Amazonas
Plant Life:
Plant growth is dense and its variety of animal inhabitants is comparatively high due to the heavy rainfall and the dense and extensive evergreen and coniferous forests. Little sunlight reaches the ground due to the dense roof canopy by plants. The ground remains dark and damp and only shade-tolerant vegetation will grow here. Orchids and bromeliads exploit trees and other plants to get closer to the sunlight. They grow hanging onto the branches or tree trunks with aerial roots, not as parasites but as epiphytes. Species of tropical trees native to the Amazon include Brazil nut, rubber tree and Assai palm.