The Amazon Rain Forest

1. The Amazon Rain Forest By Alyssa Arredondo

2. Is in South America & covers most of the Amazon Basin Brazil, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela Has poorest soil out of all the biomes

3. The Amazon rainforest gets its name from the Amazon River, the life force of the rainforest. The Amazon River begins in the Peruvian Andes, & winds its way east over the northern half of South America. It meets the Atlantic Ocean at Belem, Brazil. The main river is about 4,080 miles long. Its drainage basin covers 2,722,000 million square miles. 16% of all the world's river water flows through the Amazon delta. 28 billion gallons of water flow into the Atlantic every minute, diluting the salinity of the ocean for more than 100 miles offshore. The Amazon rainforest watershed is home to the world's highest level of biodiversity. The Amazonia receives about 9 feet of rain every year.

4. 30 Million Insect Species

5. 2,000 birds & mammals species • One in five birds live in the Amazon

6. Iguana Yellow Spotted River Turtle 3,000 Fish428 Amphibians 378 Reptiles Emerald Tree Boa Ceratophyrscornuta Dart Poison Frog Amazon Milk Frog

7. Lollipop plant 80,000 plants • 1 kilometer may contain 90,000 types of plants Zebra plant

8. So some plants have developed tough leaves, or latex outer coats that make them tough & able to resist many predators. Other plants produce leaves that are nutritionally poor, so insects have to invest a lot of time and effort in eating, which is not a worthwhile strategy for any species. Some plants have evolved to the point that they simply do not need to grow on the forest floor – instead, they live on other plants. Such plants are called epiphytes, and in lowland tropical rainforests they may represent up to 1/4 of all plant species. Amazon Lily

9. The animals in the Amazon Rainforest have adapted by camouflage & being slow. If an animal is moving at a slow pace, it is harder for predators to see it. Niger River in the Amazon

10. Invasive Species: Cane Toad It is an ingeniously crafted destroyer equipped with a host of specially developed chemical toxins, a lightening fast attack, and the ability to easily navigate across both water and land. About a century ago it became popular to export cane toads from their native habitats in Central and South America to be used as biological pest control in sugar cane fields. The toads were intended to function as predators for a population of scarab beetles that were damaging Australian sugar cane crops.

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12. About half of Brazil's original Amazon rainforest has been occupied by man, deforested or used for industry like logging. 20% of the Amazon has already been destroyed. Today, more than 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed and is gone forever. The land is being cleared for cattle ranches, mining operations, logging, and subsistence agriculture. Some forests are being burned to make charcoal to power industrial plants. More than half of the world's rainforests have been destroyed by fire and logging in the last 50 years. Over 200,000 acres are burned every day around the world, or over 150 acres every minute. Experts also estimate that 130 species of plants, animals, and insects are lost every day. At the current rate of destruction, it is estimated that the last remaining rainforests could be destroyed in less than 40 years.

13. The indigenous people of the Amazon consist of many tribes, which include the Matis tribe, the Huaoran tribe, the Bora tribe, & the Shipipo tribe.

14. http://www.mongabay.com/external/2004-1217_imazon.htm http://www.amazon-indians.org/ http://www.amazon-rainforest.org/ http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/ http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/amazon.htm