The Amazon rainforest, famous for its biodiversity, is housing an amazing number of plant and animal species. This vast, lush zone of remarkable tropical rainforest is an incredible demonstration of life’s vitality and adaptability. In this overview, we’ll explore some aspects of the Amazon rainforest, look at threats it is facing, and see why its preservation is crucial to the well-being of our planet.
The Amazon rainforest is home to an estimated 400 billion individual trees representing 16,000 species. It provides a dwelling to an exceptionally diverse collection of fauna, including 2.5 million types of insects, tens of thousands of plant species, an unknown number of fungal species, and some 2,000 bird and mammal species. The Amazon River, the lifeline of the rainforest, is the second-longest river globally and holds more water than the Nile, Yangtze, and Mississippi combined.
Size and location
The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. It stretches across nine South American countries: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The forest is so vast that it makes up over half of the planet’s remaining rainforest territory.
The Amazon rainforest covers most of the Amazon basin of South America; a basin which encompasses 7 million square kilometers. Roughly 5,5 million square kilometers of this basin is rainforest, although the number will vary depending on which definition of rainforest we use.
A majority of the Amazon rainforest, 60%, is in Brazil. Perus is home to 13% and Colombia to 10%, and the remaining parts are spread out over the other six countries.
Nature
The Amazon rainforest is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome. A lot of species live here, and there are also many areas that are far from well-explored and where researchers expect to find additional species in the future (unless these areas are destroyed). The more research that takes place, the more species are found. There are for instance roughly 2.5 million known insect species living in the Amazonas rainforest, but there might be many more that we just haven´t found and described yet.
The diversity of life in the Amazon rainforest is enormous. In a 2001 study, just one quarter of a square kilometre of Amazon rainforest in Ecuador turned out to have over 1,100 species of trees growing in it.
How much of the Amazon rainforest that is a green leaf area will vary by about 25% depending on season. During the dry season, when the sunlight is at a maximum, leaves will expand. During the wet season, when the sun is often covered by clouds, the leaves will undergo abscission.
A carbon sink
The Amazon rainforest plays an essential role in global climate regulation by acting as a carbon sink, absorbing millions of tons of carbon emissions annually. This process aids significantly in offsetting global greenhouse gas emissions, thereby mitigating climate change.
Humans in the Amazon Rainforest
Over 30 million people live in the Amazon, belonging to roughly 350 different ethnic groups and governed by nine different South American governments. Indigenous groups make up 9% of the total population and there are 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. Roughly 60 of the indigenous groups remain totally or largely isolated.
The Amazon forest’s rich biodiversity forms a bedrock for resources that sustain local communities and economies. It serves as a source of food, shelter, and medicine for millions of people. Indigenous communities living in the Amazon have long relied on the forest’s resources for their survival and cultural practices, passed down through generations. Today, the Amazon is also increasingly being
Nutrients from the Sahara
This might come as a surprise to many, but over 55% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest arrives with the wind from a place very far away – the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad, which is part of the Sahara desert. Among other things, dust from the desert contains phosphorus, which is necessary for plant growth. Each year, the Amazon rainforest loses a lot of phosphorus as it is washed away by rains and floods, and without the new dust from Sahara, this region would be much less prolific.
According to data captured by a NASA satellite, over 180 million tons of dust is blown from Sahara in direction of this part of the Americas in an average year. Not all of it reaches the Amazon rainforest, but a substantial amount do. Over 27 million tons falls over the Amazon basin, of which circa 22 million tons consist of phosphorus. Exactly how much Saharan dust that arrives to the Amazonas in a year varies significantly, at least partly because of the weather in Sahel on the southern border of the Sahara. If it rains more there, less dust becomes airborn.
Conservation
Sadly, the Amazon rainforest is under severe threat due to deforestation, primarily for cattle ranching, soybean production, logging, mining, and oil extraction. Between 2000 and 2020, the Amazon lost more than 10% of its forest cover, with recent years witnessing a significant surge in deforestation rates. Climate change also presents a substantial threat as it exacerbates the frequency and intensity of droughts and wildfires in the region, leading to tree mortality and biodiversity loss.
Saving the Amazon rainforest is more than an environmental issue – it’s a social and economic necessity as well. It requires a holistic approach, combining conservation efforts with the sustainable development of local communities.
In 2023, the World Bank published the report “A Balancing Act for Brazil’s Amazonian States: An Economic Memorandum” in which they showed how economic losses due to deforestation in Brazil could reach around 317 billion dollars per year, which is roughly 7 times more than the value of all commodities produced through this deforestation.
Key strategies to move forward with conservation in the Amazon region include strengthening regulations against deforestation, supporting sustainable practices, promoting forest regeneration, and investing in climate-smart agriculture and other businesses. International cooperation is vital.
The Amazon rainforest is not just a repository of biodiversity and a significant carbon sink; it’s also fundamental to the livelihoods and culture of millions of people. The conservation of this astounding rainforest is critical to the health and future of our planet. We must act collectively and responsibly to preserve this priceless treasure for future generations.