Geography - The Living World - Tropical Rainforests
- Created by: Noah_S
- Created on: 08-03-20 19:16
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- Amazon Rainforest
- Human Involvement
- Activities
- Commercial Farming
- Forest is cleared to make space for cattle grazing or plantations
- Cattle ranching is the main cause of deforestation
- Soy is another commercially farmed crop that takes up deforested areas
- Mineral extraction
- Gold, iron and copper are mined and exported
- Open-cast mining heavily damages the land
- Road Building
- The 4000km Trans-Amazonian Highway connects Brazil to other countries through the Amazon
- New roads built for logging have opened up, making access greater
- Commercial Farming
- Impacts
- Soil Erosion
- Brazil is losing up to 100 tonnes of topsoil each year, which could cause floodings
- Less trees intercepting rainfall means more leaching of the soil
- Climate Change
- The Amazon stores 140 billion tonnes of carbon, deforestation releases some of this as CO2
- Up to 75% of Brazil's CO2 emissions come from deforestation
- Economics
- Deforestation has brought economic development - Brazil exported $600 Million of beef in March 2018
- Logging contributes a huge amount to Brazil's economy
- Local rubber tappers have lost their livelihoods after deforestation
- Soil Erosion
- Activities
- Sustainable Management
- Conservation
- Restricts areas from logging so long as police can patrol the area
- Ecotourism
- Only a small amount of tourists allowed + rules imposed to minimise impact
- Provides an income for local people so they do not need to chop down trees
- International Hardwood Agreements
- Tries prevent illegal logging and promotes the use of hardwood from sustainablely managed forests
- Selective Logging + Replanting
- Only some trees are cut - less damaging as the overall forest structure is kept
- Replanting trees keep the forest the same - not removing anything from the area
- Conservation
- Ecosystem
- Biotic
- Plants
- Most trees are evergreen
- Trees are tall and vegetation cover is dense
- Lots of epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants)
- Animals
- Contains more animal species than other ecosystems
- Interdependent on the ecosystem
- Plants
- Abiotic
- Climate
- Same all year round
- Hot (20-28) and varies little
- Rainfall is high (2000mm per year)
- Soil
- Not fertile due to leaching
- Thin layer of surface nutrients
- Climate
- Adaptations
- Plants
- Trees compete for sunlight by growing tall
- Leaves are think, waxy and have drip tips to encourage runoff
- Many trees have smooth, think bark + buttress roots to support themselves
- Animals
- Strong limbs to move easily in the canopy
- Some birds have short, pointed wings to manoeuvre easily
- Many are nocturnal to save energy in the cool night
- Plants
- Biotic
- Human Involvement
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