The Amazon

10 facts about Amazon’s rainforest
·  The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world, covering over five and a half a million square kilometres (1.4 billion acres).
·  Over half of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil but it is also located in other South American countries including Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Bolivia, Suriname and French Guiana.
·  10% of the world’s known species live in the Amazon rainforest.
·  20% of the world’s bird species live in the Amazon rainforest.
·  It is home to around 2 and a half million different insect species as well as over 40000 plant species.
·  There are also a number of dangerous species living in the Amazon rainforest such as the cougar, jaguar and anaconda.
·  While the protection of the Amazon rainforest remains an issue, deforestation rates have been reducing while areas of conserved land have been increasing over the last 10 years.
·  In both 2005 and 2010 the Amazon rainforest suffered severe droughts that killed off large amounts of vegetation in the worst affected areas.

·  A recent study by climate change experts suggests that a 3 °C rise in world temperatures by the year 2010 would destroy around 75% of the Amazon.

10 FACTS ABOUT THE AMAZON

1) The rainforest likely formed during the Eocene era. It appeared following a global reduction of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened sufficiently to provide a warm, moist climate to the Amazon basin.

2) Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago.

3) The region is home to about 2.5 million incect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes,  1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region.

4) The biodiversity of plant species is the highest on Earth with one 2001.

5) Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and development of the land.

6) In the 1970s construction began on the Trans-Amazonian highway. This highway represented a major threat to the Amazon rainforest.

7) Amazonian evergreen forests account for about 10% of the world's terrestrial primary productivity and 10% of the carbon stored in ecosystems.

8) In 2005, parts of the Amazon basin experienced the worst drought in one hundred years,and there were indications that 2006 could have been a second successive year of drought.

9) The Amazonian manatee is a species of manatee of the order Sirenia. It is found living in the freshwater habitats of the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador.

10) The name 'Amazon' is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with a tribe of Tapuyas and other tribes from South America.

10 things about Amazon rainforests.

1.    Around 80% of the food we eat originally came from rainforests.

2.        Tropical rainforests only cover about 6% of the Earth’s surface.

3.        The forest floor is almost completely dark – with less that 1% of the available sunlight making it through the tree canopy above.

4.        There are around 3000 fruits found in rainforests.

5.        The rainforests have begun to be destroyed in the last 100 years to make way for farm land.

6.        With deforestation continuing at such a fast rate.

7.        Over a quarter of the medicines we use today have their origins in the rainforests – and that’s after only about 1% of rainforest plants have been examined for their medicinal properties.

8.        Some people call the rainforests ‘the world’s lungs’, but decomposition of plant matter absorbs as much oxygen as the trees produce.

9.       If deforestation continues, we’ll completely lose the rainforests within the next 40 years.

10.   We often think that the soil in the rainforest is really fertile to support such a huge range of plant and animal life.