The Tropical Rainforest: The Amazon

by Natalie Stern
There are many global threats that the Amazon
Citations has to face. Global warming and human destruction are

The rainforest is the most biologically diverse biome on land. In the
continuously damaging or completely wiping out parts
rainforest, the weather is extremely wet, hence the name rainforest. In fact, of the rainforest. Every second of every day, a chunk of
the rainforest can receive between 200 and 400 centimeters of rain annually!
land the size of a football field is cut down! This is a
The climate is hot and extremely humid. There is an incredible amount of
result of agricultural development, logging, mining,
various species in the rainforest; there are more species of reptiles, birds, and ranching, and more. The logging is especially harmful
amphibians than in other terrestrial biomes. The Amazon is the largest because it opens up the canopy, which is supposed to
rainforest in the world. serve as a sheltering ceiling, and allows wind and sun to
Many tropical rainforests resemble each other and have similar plant
dry out leaves on the ground which results in small
and animal characteristics. For example, most trees have trunks that
ground-level forest fires. Also, this is harmful to animals
don’t brach out for over one hundred feet because the canopy prevents who live up in near the canopy because they cannot
them from getting much light below that. Many trees also have thin climb over the bigger gaps created by the logging.
barks because they don’t need to protect themselves from cold weather. Global warming also has a destructive effect on the
Plants have additionally made adaptations to shake off much of the
Amazon, as a raise of global temperature of only one
water they receive so the leaves don’t get weighed down and break.
degree could make the rainforest suffer. According to a
study, by 2150 global warming could have destroyed
over 85 percent of the Amazon. Global warming not
Emergent Layer only increases the temperature of the rainforest, which is
and Canopy not good for its ecosystems, but it reduces the amount of
rainfall which clearly has a destructive effect on forests
who are dependent on rain.

When it comes logging and the destruction of rainforest, there are two
political sides: those who want the rainforest to survive, and those who want
In the rainforest, there are several layers of vegetation where different creatures live: the the logging companies to survive. There is much controversy on this topic
emergent layer, the canopy, the understory, the shrub layer, and the forest floor. The because preserving the rainforests is a major modern goal, but the loggers
emergent layer consists of trees that tower twenty to one hundred feet above the canopy. The keep on destroying the forests at such fast rates. Additionally, logging worsens
canopy is a dense, vast group of trees that appears to be an unbroken ceiling. The understory global warming because it emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The
consists of smaller, more widely-spaced trees that form a layer under the canopy. The shrub United States and other rich Western countries have given a lot money to
layer includes species of shrubs that grow a mere five to twenty feet off of the forest floor. funds that work to prevent deforestation. However, while many people
The forest floor is the ground layer of the forest that houses tree trunks, low-growing consider this a perfectly good place for their money to go, others are unsure.
vegetation, and fungus.
The various ecosystems in each of these areas are homes to animals who have The future outlook for the rainforest is a devastating reality. According to some
adaptions to their areas. However, 70 to 90 percent of rainforest organisms live studies, half of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil could be wiped out entirely within twenty
above the ground. Therefore, most animals are better adapted to living in the trees. years if deforestation continues at such a fast rate. Deforestation is a crisis because when the
The animals also typically have bright colors, make loud noises, and eat a diet with loggers cut down all of the trees, the already nutrient-lacking soil lose most of their remaining
a lot of fruit. There are more insects in the rainforest than any other group of nutrients due to rain washing them away and the sunlight. Therefore the rainforest have no
animals. chance of growing back after they are cleared.