Animals
|
The Amazon tropical rainforest support thousands of wildlife species, because of its abundance of food ,water ,and warm temperatures. Due to the competition in the Amazon rainforest; the organisms have adapt or develop specialized traits to compete for environmental resources. A lot of the animals use adaptations to carve out their own niches and protect themselves from predators. In the Amazon rainforests, there is many kinds of adaption. A good example, is the relationship between the strong-jawed agouti ,and the Brazilian nut tree, which is considered as a physical adaptiopn. The Brazilian nut tree produces nuts, that only the agouti's jaws can crack. The agouti buries the cracked nuts that it hasn't eaten, in different places far from the tree and this is how the Brazilian nut tree gets planted. |
plants
The trees in the Amazon tropical rainforest can grow up to of 200 feet high. Due to that the trees can’t get their nutrients they need from the soil; they depend on leaves and matter from high in the canopy. The falling matter gets decomposed quickly, by bacteria and fungi, and then the trees absorbs it. That's why people can call the Amazon tropical rainforest, the world’s fastest recycle.
At the canopy level, in other word the highest point of the rainforest, light is abundant and sometimes scorching. But the floor of the Amazon tropical rainforest is really dark, whether it's in morning or at night. |
|
In the Amazon rainforest, plants also have to adapt to the environment around it. A really good example of that adaption, is a plant called Liana. Lianas are climbing woody vines, that drape most of the rainforest trees. This plants have to adapt to life in the rainforest, by climbing high into the canopy trees searching for available sunlight. Although they have their roots in the ground. A lot of the liana plants start their life's in the rainforest canopy trees, and then send their roots down to the ground.
interesting fact
- The Amazon rainforests supports half of the remaining rainforests on the entire planet.
- There are approximately 2.5 million insect species in the Amazon rainforest.
- There are approximately 3000 fruits that grow in the rainforest that are edible.
- The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest. Covering over 5.5 million square kilometer, it's so big that the UK and Ireland would fit into it 17 times.
- The Amazon rainforest supports around 40,000 plant species, 1,300 bird species, 3,000 types of fish, 430 mammals and a whopping 2.5 million different insects.
- The Amazon rainforest is also referred to as the ‘Lungs of the Planet' because it produces more than 20% of the world's oxygen.
- Due to the thickness of the canopy (the top branches and leaves of the tees), the Amazon floor is in permanent darkness. In fact, it’s so thick that when it rains, it takes around ten minutes for the water to reach the ground.
- The Amazon is home to a whole host of fascinating and deadly creatures, including electric eels, flesh eating piranhas, poison dart frogs, jaguars and some seriously venemous snakes.
- 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.
- 10% of the world’s known species live in the Amazon rainforest
- 20% of the world’s bird species live in the Amazon rainforest.