What Will Happen If The Rain Forest was Destroyed?
What is a Rainforest?
A rainforest is just as the name means: it is a forest that gets a lot of rain. The Amazon Rainforest receives an average of 250 centimeters (98inches) to 450 centimeters (180 inches) of rain every year. There are several things that all rainforests have in common. They usually have moderate climates that never get too cold. They can be very hot and humid. Most rainforests have layers of trees: very short to very tall. This is called stratified. There is basically four layer or strata of trees. Starting on the forest floor, there are small plants, along with tiny versions of what will be the forest giants. Next, in the strata is the understory. These trees are the homes for most of the rainforest’s animals. The trees in the understory are shrubs and bushes. The next layer is the canopy. These are the largest trees that give the rainforest a dense shade and create a thick tree cover. These trees are usually 30 meters (8 feet) to about 45 meters (148 feet) tall. Above the canopy is the emergent layer. These are the trees that have grown taller than the other trees in the canopy layer.
Amazon rainforest covers an enormous area in South America, roughly 7,000,000 square kilometres (2,700,000 square miles). It forms a jagged circle that has nine different countries in it. They are: Brazil; Peru; Columbia; Bolivia; Suriname; French Guiana and Venezuela. There are an estimated 16,000 tree species that make up a mass of about 390 billion individual trees. The Amazon Rainforest is so very important because, by itself, it is half of all the rainforest ecosystems in the world. The famous Amazon River runs through the rainforest.
Animal Species in the Amazon
Amazon Rainforest is home to an estimated 3000 species of fish; 400 species of amphibians, including the poison dart frogs; 378 reptile species; 1300 species of birds; 427 species of mammals, including Jaguar and Anteater; and at least 40,000 different plant species.
Threat to Amazon Rainforest
There are many changes happening the Amazon Rainforest that is having terrible effects of the land, animals and people that live there. Climate change is threatening this unique area. One significant problem is that the Amazon Rainforest has been suffering from a drought starting in 2005. In moist, humid habitat that depends on large amounts of rain, drought can be very damaging.Another problem is the amount of deforestation that is happening every day. Humans are cutting the canopy trees down or burning them to clear the land for growing crops and grazing livestock. With the canopy layer removed all life, the either lived in the canopy or lived under it is being disturbed. It is becoming very difficult for some of the animals to find food and shelter they have depended on now that their habitat is so different.
What is Deforestation?
Deforestationis the conversion of forested areas to non-forest land for use such as arable land, pasture, urban use, logged area, or wasteland. Deforestation can also be seen as removal of forests leading to several imbalances ecologically and environmentally and results in declines in habitat and biodiversity. Urbanization, Mining, Fires, Logging and Agricultural activities are few of the causes of deforestation.
-
Facts 1: Forests cover 30% of the earth's land.
-
Facts 2: It is estimated that within 100 years there will be no rainforests.
-
Facts 3: Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation.
-
Facts 4: One and a half acres of forest is cut down every second.
-
20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon forest.
How to Save the RainForest
It is going to be very difficult to save the Amazon Rainforest for several reasons. There are 9 countries that share the rainforest and each one has a different policy in regards to deforestation; that is removing the trees for wood or to create more soy fields and grazing land for cattle. To save the rainforest there needs to be a cohesive policy that every country agrees to follow.
To save the Amazon Rainforest value must also be placed on how it functions as a “carbon sink.” A “carbon sink” is any land or forest that absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. The rainforest can create weather patterns and actually pull in extra carbon that is currently playing a major role in climate change. If the Amazon Rainforest continues to be removed and destroyed the overall conditions on Earth will become worse. By saving the Amazon Rainforest, we will be saving ourselves.
