UNION COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Amazon Rainforest By Noah Telfer admin 4/7/2011
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B y Noah Telfer
What is the Amazon rain forest? Did you know that the rain forest used to cover 14% of the world’s land? Unfortunately, now the forest covers only 6%! The rainforests holds many organisms such as; plants, animals, and insects. It is also a place where massive amounts of photosynthesis going on! This plays a vital part in our world’s oxygen levels! Yet, still sadly the Amazon is being torn down. This is called deforestation. Since we now see how important the Amazon rainforest is, are you ready to go and learn about the Amazon rainforest? Good!!!
The climate zone is tropical wet and tropical dry. The average temperature is between 80-90 degrees. In a year the average rainfall is usually 120 inchs. The Amazon rainforest is in South America, and can be found in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The hemisphere it is in the south west and North West hemisphere. The latitude and longitude boxed in is (also shown here on this map) 7°west and 75° north, 0°west and 60°north, 7°west and 45°north, 15°west and 60°north.
There are four different layers in the rain forest. They are the forest floor, the understory, canopy layer and emergent layer. On the forest floor there are not many plants because barley any sunlight can get through, because the trees block it out. This leaves little energy for plants to grow. Most of the life exists by decomposing stuff that falls to the floor from the higher levels. The understory level is in the middle of the rainforest, still not much sunlight, but there are plants that have huge foliage that can get enough sunlight to support the plant. The canopy layer is the part of the rain forest that can be the busiest part of the jungle, a maze of leaves branches and a lot of animals! This is where one can find carnivores and herbivores alike. There are also omnivores that eat plants and animals. It’s also were the tree tops are. The emergent level is where the highest of the trees are and many birds live up in this habitat.
Animals There is numerous flora and fauna in the rain forest one of the creatures that is well known is the spider monkey. These monkeys spend most of their time in the canopy. They are herbivores so it eats no meat; they eat lots of plants, fruits and seeds. Did you ever notice the tail of the spider monkey? The tail for the spider monkey it acts as a fifth limb. This is an example of what is called an adaptation. Adaptation is when an animal develops a trait to help it better survive in its environment. These animals can colors of red tan black, brown or golden, it can grow up to two feet long. The monkeys’ main predator is human tribes in the rainforest and people killing these beautiful creatures for their fur. Another animal in the rainforest is the poison dart frog also known as the poison arrow frog. It can be found in central and south America. You May have already guessed from the name that these frogs are poisons but sill some animals eat the poison dart frog plus sometimes humans step on these animals. They like dense vegetation so they can camouflage themselves. An adaptation it has is that it has bright colored skin as shown in this picture that warns other animals. They can be
in colors like red, yellow and blue. Their size is about less than 1 inch. The eat small insects ants and small water animals.
Plants There are many types of plants in the Amazon rainforest. They come in all shapes and sizes; one of those plants is the orchid. The orchid can be found on the ground and on the trees. People use the orchid as decoration in their homes or on their patios. Bugs can sometimes harm it and some monkeys eat them. Orchid flowers vary in size and shape. There is another plant called the Strangler fig. They are consumers or they get there energy from ingesting another thing. It starts up high in a tree and makes its way down the tree. As you can see it goes around the tree. Nothing really eats the strangler fig because it is poisons. It coils around its victims’ and as the days go by it starts to consumes its host and hollows it out. humans don’t really use this plant, and it’s not really wanted. The figure below is an example of carnivores and consumers.
Tribes The Yanomani is just one of the indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest. They live by hunting, fishing and farming. On some days a man might go out with his son and hunt for food using arrows and bows that they made and a machete that they traded for. Or some days a man from the tribe might go and try to fish, and sometimes they might trade the fish they have caught. At night since they have no written language they will tell stories to pass their culture on. The tribe might bild a canoe that allows them to move down stream. They use huts for shelter. They live a nomadic lifestyle. They will use the fish for
the main source of protein, because they can hunt but it takes a while for them to kill something. They do not wear much because of the climate (it’s hot out)! They will sometimes have sticks through their noses also. There is also another tribe called the Machiguenga. They live in small scattered villages. They eat in a hut made of thatch wood this also were the woman weave and cook. They sleep in a hut that the wall has cracks so that the wind comes in but keeps the bugs out. They tell stories like the Yanomani to so they can pass their culture on. They use the sap from trees to make medicine they hunt and farm for food. They grow fruit and vegetables for farming. They gather nuts from trees and use them for food also. They are tan and also wear very little.
Deforestation Deforestation is a huge problem in the rainforest. Cattle ranching is the biggest problem that is going on. Humans are clearing huge amounts of land for cattle, and then after the cattle eat all the grass they do it again somewhere else. There are also animals that are losing their homes. Another cause of deforestation is mining. It just leaves the land devastated. It is a huge problem but you can help. People are already trying to do so by ecotourism (people coming to the rain forest and helping) and conservation (where people try to prevent the rain forest from being torn down). There are thousands of animals in the rain forest, and every minute precious forest is lost. Those animals are dying! Please don’t sit
on that couch! Get up and prevent the wrong down do those animals thank you. Site sources http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/whlayers.html http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/ http://traveltips.usatoday.com/average-temperature-amazon-rainforest-16280.html http://wwimgurl=http://images.travelpod.com/users/xycolsen/1.1245726074.mahoganytrees.jpg&imgrefurl.www http://www.tiptheplanet.com/images/4/47/Amazon_rain_forest.jpg http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/IK/strangler-fig-de.jpg People of the Rainforest on www.Discovery Education.com