AMAZON CASE STUDY

• Case study of a tropical rainforest setting to illustrate and analyse key themes in water and carbon cycles and their relationship to environmental change and human activity.

  Amazon rainforest
• Location of the Amazon

  Located mainly in Brazil
• What river basin does the Amazon RF sit within?

  The Amazon River basin
• Size of Amazon Rf compared to others in the World

  The largest tropical rainforest on Earth
• What percentage of the South American contienent does the AMazon RF cover?

  Covers 40%
• Average rainfall across the whole Amazon basin annually

  Approxiamtely 2300mm anually
• How much carbon does the Amazon store?

  Estimated to store bwtween 80 adn 120 billion tons of Carbon
• What tropics is amazon located in ?

  Between Tropics of Cancer and Tropics of Capricorn
• Describ the soild of TF

  -> Soils are a mixture of weathered rock,rotted organic matter etc

  -> Soils are naturally poor in nutrients
• What returns CO2 back ti the atmosphere in the TRF

  Respiration by plants,trees and many animals
• Causes of deforestion in Amazon: Mining

  Up to 25% of the Peruvians Amazons annual gold production comes from illegal mining
• Causes of deforestion in Amazon: Mining

  In Guyana, illegal mining of mainly gold is responsible for 85% of forest loss
• Deforestion in Amazon

  Between 2000 and 2007 the Amazon was deforestated at a rate of nearly 20,000km2 per year
• What place of world polluters is Brazil?

  Brazil is the 6th largest polluter
• Impact of deforestaion: Less precipiation (global impact)

  If there was complete deforestation of the Amzon Basin this would likely reduce rainfall in the US , Midwest,Northwest and parts of the south during agricultural season