The Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest is one of the most favorite tourist destinations in South America. It is popularly known as Amazon jungle or Amazonia. It encompasses majority of the Amazon Basin in South America.

The Amazon Rainforest is a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest. It forms an important part of the Amazon Basin in South America. This area covers 1.7 billion acres or 7 million sq km, out of which 1.4 billion acres or 5.5 million sq km is encompassed by the rainforest. The Amazon Rainforest incorporates land belonging to 9 countries. Most of the rainforest is located in Brazil with 60% of the forest, succeeded by Peru with 13% of rainforest and in small percentages in Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana.

Departments or states in four countries use the name Amazonas following their names. The Amazon Rainforest accounts for more than 50% of the residual rainforests. It also consists of the biggest tropical rainforest in the globe with the most diversified species of animals and plants.

In 2008, The New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation chose Amazon Rainforest as a contender to one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. Since February 2009, the rainforest got the first position in Group E, the group for national parks, forests and natural reserves.

The name Amazon probably originated from a battle between a clan of Tapuyas and other South American ethnic groups and Francisco de Orellana, the famous Spanish conquistador and explorer.

A different etymology for the word hints that it was essentially derived from a colloquial word amassona (Portuguese spelling) or amazona (Spanish spelling), denoting "destroyer (of) boats", in line with the disparaging characteristics of the root system by some riverbank trees.

Features of Amazon Rainforest

Humid tropical forests feature the maximum number of species. Tropical forests in the Americas always have more number of species than the tropical forests in Asia and Africa. As the biggest strip of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazon Rainforest has matchless biodiversity. One in ten recognized species in the world exist in this Rainforest. This represents the biggest assortment of flora and fauna in the world.

The area houses approximately 10,000 plants, 2.5 million insect species, and some 2,000 mammals and birds. Up till now, minimum 3,000 fishes, 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1,294 birds, 378 reptiles and 428 amphibians have been methodically categorized in the area. One in five of all the birds in the world stay in the Amazon Rainforests. Scientists have explained between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil only.

The variety of tree species is the maximum in the world with some specialists approximating that one sq km may include over 1,000 types of plants and 1,000 of species of other taller trees. As per a survey conducted in 2001, 1/4 sq km of rainforest in Ecuador bears over 1,100 species of plants.

One sq km of rainforest in Amazon can include around 90,790 tons of existing trees. The average plant biomass is calculated at 356 ± 47 tons ha-1. Up to now, probably 438,000 tree species of social and economic importance have been documented in the area with a lot still to be found out or recorded.

The green leaf region of trees and plants in the Amazon Rainforest differs by approximately 25% due to climate changes. Leaves get bigger at the time of the arid season when there is maximum sunshine. Subsequently, they go through shedding in the overcast humid season. These alterations offer an equilibrium of carbon between respiration and photosynthesis.

The Amazonian Rainforest is home to many species that can cause a risk. Among the biggest predatory animals are Jaguar, the Black Caiman, Anaconda, and Cougar. Electric eels in the river can generate electric shocks that can shock or take life. At the same time, Piranhas are recognized to gnaw and harm humans. Different types of poison dart frogs emit lipophilic alkaloid poisons by their fleshy tissues. In addition, various fleas and disease carriers are there. Vampire bats inhabit in the rainforest and can multiply the rabies virus. Yellow fever, malaria, and dengue fever can also catch in this area.