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special features of the amazon rainforest

by Guest4314  |  12 years, 8 month(s) ago

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any special features that are contained in the amazon rainforest

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  1. jane
    hello

    Amazon rain forest the largest rainforest in the world.

    It is also home to a massive selection of wild life and creatures that live there and relatively large areas of it are unspoilt by humans which goes for less and less places around the world these days.

    It is also special as a great absorbed of carbon from the atmosphere and producer of oxygen, the combined effect of all the trees there being huge on regulating the level of oxygen in the atmosphere, though the level of oxygen in the atmosphere is steadily dropping from a high point millions of years ago.

    The Amazon River Basin is home to the largest rainforest on Earth. The basin -- roughly the size of the forty-eight contiguous United States -- covers some 40% of the South American continent and includes parts of eight South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, as well as French Guiana, a department of France.

    Reflecting environmental conditions as well as past human influence, the Amazon is made up of a mosaic of ecosystems and vegetation types including rainforests, seasonal forests, deciduous forests, flooded forests, and savannas. The basin is drained by the Amazon River, the world's largest river in terms of discharge, and the second longest river in the world after the Nile. The river is made up of over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are longer than 1000 miles, and two of which (the Negro and the Madeira) are larger, in terms of volume, than the Congo (formerly the Zaire) river. The river system is the lifeline of the forest and its history plays an important part in the development of its rainforests.

        *  We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.

        * One and one-half acres of rainforest are lost every second with tragic consequences for both developing and industrial countries.

        * Rainforests are being destroyed because the value of rainforest land is perceived as only the value of its timber by short-sighted governments, multi-national logging companies, and land owners.

        * Nearly half of the world's species of plants, animals and microorganisms will be destroyed or severely threatened over the next quarter century due to rainforest deforestation.

        * Experts estimates that we are losing 137 plant, animal and insect species every single day due to rainforest deforestation. That equates to 50,000 species a year. As the rainforest species disappear, so do many possible cures for life-threatening diseases. Currently, 121 prescription drugs sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. While 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less that 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

        * Most rainforests are cleared by chainsaws, bulldozers and fires for its timber value and then are followed by farming and ranching operations, even by world giants like Mitsubishi Corporation, Georgia Pacific, Texaco and Unocal.

        * There were an estimated ten million Indians living in the Amazonian Rainforest five centuries ago. Today there are less than 200,000.

        * In Brazil alone, European colonists have destroyed more than 90 indigenous tribes since the 1900's. With them have gone centuries of accumulated knowledge of the medicinal value of rainforest species. As their homelands continue to be destroyed by deforestation, rainforest peoples are also disappearing.

        * Most medicine men and shamans remaining in the Rainforests today are 70 years old or more. Each time a rainforest medicine man dies, it is as if a library has burned down.

        * When a medicine man dies without passing his arts on to the next generation, the tribe and the world loses thousands of years of irreplaceable knowledge about medicinal plants.

    The Wealth of the Rainforests

        * The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.

        * The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.

        * More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world's fresh water is in the Amazon Basin.

        * One hectare (2.47 acres) may contain over 750 types of trees and 1500 species of higher plants.

        * At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.

        * At least 3000 fruits are found in the rainforests; of these only 200 are now in use in the Western World. The Indians of the rainforest use over 2,000.

        * Rainforest plants are rich in secondary metabolites, particularly alkaloids. Biochemists believe alkaloids protect plants from disease and insect attacks. Many alkaloids from higher plants have proven to be of medicinal value and benefit.

        * Currently, 121 prescription drugs currently sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. And while 25% of Western pharmaceuticals are derived from rainforest ingredients, less than 1% of these tropical trees and plants have been tested by scientists.

        * The U.S. National Cancer Institute has identified 3000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in the rainforest. Twenty-five percent of the active ingredients in today's cancer-fighting drugs come from organisms found only in the rainforest.

        * Vincristine, extracted from the rainforest plant, periwinkle, is one of the world's most powerful anticancer drugs. It has dramatically increased the survival rate for acute childhood leukemia since its discovery.

        * In 1983, there were no U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers involved in research programs to discover new drugs or cures from plants. Today, over 100 pharmaceutical companies and several branches of the US government, including giants like Merck and The National Cancer Institute, are engaged in plant research projects for possible drugs and cures for viruses, infections, cancer, and even AIDS.

    Rainforest Action

        * Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it's many nuts, fruits, oil-producing plants, and medicinal plants, the rainforest has more economic value than if they were cut down to make grazing land for cattle or for timber.

        * The latest statistics show that rainforest land converted to cattle operations yields the land owner $60 per acre and if timber is harvested, the land is worth $400 per acre. However, if these renewable and sustainable resources are harvested, the land will yield the land owner $2,400 per acre.

        * If managed properly, the rainforest can provide the world's need for these natural resources on a perpetual basis.

        * Promoting the use of these sustainable and renewable sources could stop the destruction of the rainforests. By creating a new source of income harvesting the medicinal plants, fruits nuts, oil and other sustainable resources, the rainforests is be more valuable alive than cut and burned.

        * Sufficient demand of sustainable and ecologically harvested rainforest products is necessary for preservation efforts to succeed. Purchasing sustainable rainforest products can effect positive change by creating a market for these products while supporting the native people's economy and provides the economic solution and alternative to cutting the forest just for the value of its timber.


    hope it helps

  2. Guest1447
    you smell
  3. Guest4542
    Yes Arslan Masuad you smell
  4. Guest6841
    you smell
  5. Guest5627
    yes, i agree with Guest16842756 . you suck.
  6. Guest5654
    heyo Guest16842734 is awsum and so is Guest16842756 yeah and Arslan Masaud
    u smell really bad have a shower. and buy some deodorant a ha oh that's right
  7. Guest9230
    The amazon is just about the bestest place in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD SO HA!!!
  8. Guest1918
    mann what is a feture of the Amazn rainforestt that is the question u idiots
  9. Guest473

    WAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT WELL IT IS A VERY GOOD QUESTION BECAUSE I NEED IT FOR A SCIENCE PROJECT!!!DUHHHH

  10. Guest1775

    i think the main features of the amazon rainforest are exotic plants and animals.

  11. Guest8421

     hey Arslan Masaud  can you like summarize that?

  12. Guest1939

    Amazon rain forest has a huge size, it has great diversity in animal life. Some of the animals have not even yet classified. Amazon rain forest is known as Amazonia or Amazon jungle. It is a moist broadleaf forest, it stretches in the Amazon Basin of South America.


    One of the outstanding feature of this rainforest is that it has world's half remaining rainforests. It is termed as the species rich tropical rainforest in the world.

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