Amazon rain forest

Anderson, AB., Ed. Alternatives to Deprestatiorv Steps Toward Sustainable Use of the Amazon Rain Forest Columbia University Press New York, NY, 1990. 

During the Late Pleniglacial, between 20,000 and 13,000 BP, some 25% of the land surface became covered with continental ice sheets (versus some 10% today). With so much water stored in ice sheets, the sea level dropped to about 120 meters below the present level and large parts of the world became extremely arid. The Amazon rain forest dwindled to isolated refugia, European forests disappeared but for small sheltered areas, and large parts of the globe turned to tundra, steppe, savannah or desert. 

To get an idea of just how big a hundred billion is, the Amazon rain forest offers an appropriate analogy. The Amazon rain forest stretches for 2 700 000 square miles and contains a hundred billion trees. There are about as many trees as neurons in the brain. Considering the huge number of connections between neurons, there are about as many as the leaves on the trees in the Amazon jungle. 

Apart from these effects, the largest land-based C02 sink, the Amazon rain forest, is being destroyed by cattle ranching and lumbering. Deforestation is occurring over the whole land mass, and will lead to an increase in C02 as yet unaccounted for. 

Donn, J. 1999. Report Amazon Rain Forest Fading, The Associated Press News Service, April 8, 1999. 

Ferreira, L. 1996. Asian logging companies turning to Amazon rain forest," Kyodo News International, Inc., June 4. 

Dantas, M. 1989. Studies on succession in cleared areas of the Amazon rain forest. Ph.D. dissertation. Oxford University, Oxford. 

Fearnside, P, M. 1990. Predominant land uses in Brazilian Amazonia. In Alternatives to Deforestation Steps Towards Sustainable Use of the Amazon Rain Forest, ed. A. B. Anderson (Columbia University Press, New York), pp. 233-251. 

The earth s forests and jungles play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of gases in the atmosphere, removing CO2 and supplying O2. The massive destruction, for economic reasons, of heavily forested areas such as the Amazon rain forest in South America is cited as another long-term contributor to global environmental problems. Worldwide, more than 3 million square miles of once-forested land is now barren for some reason at least 60% of this land is now unused. 

The origins of latex are from the rubber tree (Hevea Brazilliensis), which originated in the Amazon rain forest. From the second half of the 19th century, plantations were developed predominantly in South East Asia to harvest this natural product. 

Davis, W. 1996. One River Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest. New York Simon and Schuster. 

We should view an oral presentation as amplified conversation. Suppose that you walk up to two friends who are talking. One of them asks the other, Jan, to tell about her recent trip to the Amazon rain forest. You both become engrossed in Jan s account and start doing more listening than talking. Another person joins the discussion, then another, then two more. A few more people see the group and join. Eventually someone asks Jan whether she has pictures from her trip. Jan steps into her office, brings out some pictures, and refers to them as she talks. 

Lloyd, J., Grace, J., Miranda, A. C., Mier, P, Wong, S. C., Miranda, H., Wright, L, Gash, J. H. C., and McIntyre, J. (1995). A simple calibrated model of Amazon rain forest productivity based on leaf biochemical properties. Plant Cell and Environ. 18,1129-1145. 

As we learn more about the biological world, we are finding that humble plants are often master chemists. For example, certain plants in the Amazon rain forests use chemistry in a very clever way to protect themselves. When attacked by herbivores such as spider mites or caterpillars, these plants produce and release compounds into the air that attract certain mites that are natural enemies of the attacking herbivores. These bodyguard mites assist the plant in fending off the attackers. 

Another example of the cooperation of plants and insects occurs in the so-called devil s gardens, in which a single species of tree predominates (D. hirsute) in large areas of the Amazon rain forests. Local legend attributes this strange phenomenon to an evil forest spirit that prevents other types of trees from growing. 

Late Quaternary Vegetation History of the Amazon Rain Forest.409... 

LATE QUATERNARY VEGETATION HISTORY OF THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST... 

Behling, H. and Hooghiemstra, H., Holocene Amazon rain forest-savanna dynamics and climatic implications high-resolution pollen record from Laguna Loma Linda in eastern Colombia, J. Quat. Sci., 15, 687, 2000. 

Models incorporating stoichiometry can be used to estimate amormts of CO2 absorbed by a growing Amazon rain forest. Solution concerrtration can be discussed in terms of carbon dioxide in the river itself The Ksp modeling can be used to estimate ions that can be contained and suspended in the river basia... 

Freitas G, Gleizer G, Lizarralde F, Hsu L, Salvi dos Reis NR (2010) Kinematic reconfigurability control for an environmental mobile robot operatmg in the Amazon Rain Forest. J Field Robot 27 197-216... 

---