Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

1. one ecosystem; processes, benefits for people, impact on human activity and management.

   • Effects of rainforest destruction
     • Change in Bio-diversity- removal of plants and animals
     • Change in Hydrology- the water cycle is disrupted without the trees interception and transpiration are disrupted, water and silt pour into rivers causing them to flood
     • Change in soils. Soils are easily eroded and rain removes nutrients from the soil via surface-runoff and leaching. The soil becomes infertile and there is gullying and mud slides on steep slopes.
     • Change in Climate. Transpiration is reduced and evaporation increases. This leads to a dryer climate. Deforestation leads to Global Warming because trees use up carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and this leads to global warming

2. PROCESSES

   • The Water Cycle in the Amazon Rainforest.
     • the forest acts as a store of water in between rainfall events
     • after a rainstorm is is said that 80% of the rainfall is transferred back to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration
     • Indigenous tribes live in the rainforest
   • Convectional Rainfall

3. Key Facts

   • it is located in South America. with countries like Brazil, Colombia and Peru bordering it.
   • it is 5.5 million square kilometres in size
   • the land is mainly used for grazing cattle and growing soya beans
   • it is estimated that more than 1/3rd of all species line the amazon rainforest.

4. How Does the economic ativity change the ecosystem

   • the removal of trees is called deforestation this is happening in the amazon
   • the timber industry is responsible for providing wood for paper, furniture and hew houses. this has caused large scale destruction as vehicles and machinery drive through the forest
   • Slash and Burn. Subsistence farmers clear the forest by burning. after 3 or 4 years of farming the soil becomes infertile and another patch of the forest is cleared
   • Cattle ranching for beef. Grazing animals damages the forest and after about 10 years of overgrazing the rain turns the land into a semi-desert
   • iron-ore mining at Carajas in Amazonia has destroyed the forest
   • Hydro-electric schemes like the Tucuri dam in Brazil has led to the destruction of the rainforest

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