2011

Gregory

The Wonders of the Amazon Rainforest

Gregory W.

IntroductionHow much do you think you know about the Amazon rainforest? I bet when you

read this book you will be amazed at how much you didn’t know. This book is about the Amazon rainforest. To get started, a rainforest is a tall dense jungle with lots of rain.

They are full of flowers, leaves, and branches that make up the beautiful foliage. It is very hot and humid. Rainforests are located near the equator. The Amazon rainforest is located in South America, more specifically Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana. Amazingly, it is in 3 hemispheres. They are the Northern, Southern, and Western hemispheres. The latitude and longitude are 0° -15°s and 45°w-75°w. The average rainfall is 40-100+ and the average temperature is 79°. The average climate, or conditions in an area for a long period of time, is tropical wet to dry.

Layers

There are four layers of the rainforest. They are the forest floor, the understory, the canopy, and the emergent layer. They are all full of plants and animals which are grouped into a category we know as organisms. Any living thing is an organism. The forest floor is home to capybaras, great anteaters, and many other animals and plants. The understory is home to animals like jaguars, red-eyed tree frogs, and leopards. It is home to many of the insects. The canopy is the layer that provides shade for the lower two layers. It blocks out almost all the sunlight and it gets the highest percentage of light. It is home to animals like Macaws, toucans, snakes, and tree frogs. The emergent layer is the layer that “emerges” out of the canopy. It is the layer that towers above the other layers. Some animals you might find there are eagles, monkeys, bats, and butterflies.

AnimalsFrom the forest floor to the emergent layer the Amazon rainforest is teeming

with life. All animals are consumers because they eat other organisms. There are herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and many other organisms. An omnivore is an animal that eats both plants and animals. A person from the Yanomami tribe would be an omnivore. Some animals use a special thing called camouflage. Some species of tree frog use camouflage to blend in with their surroundings.

Scarlet Macaw

The Scarlet macaw is a very colorful bird. It is also very social. They usually live in groups. Its habitat, or place it lives, is the canopy. They are herbivores; an herbivore is an animal that eats only plants. Scarlet Macaws eat things like Brazil-nuts, berries, and other nuts. The scarlet macaw has a special ability called an adaptation. An adaptation is something that an animal uses to help it survive. The Macaw has a very strong beak so that it can break the shells of nuts. It has several organisms that eat it called predators. Some predators are big cats, anacondas, and other large carnivores. Carnivores are animals that eat only meat.

Capybara

The capybara is a very special animal. It is the largest rodent in the world. It is brown, furry, and rather large. It lives on the forest floor and it is semi-aquatic animal so it is adapted to the water. That can help it escape predators. Some of its predators are humans, jaguars, and anacondas. It is an herbivore and its prey, or things it eats, is mainly grass. It also eats fruits and tree bark.

PlantsThere are a wide variety of plants in the rainforest. Some are poisonous, some are medicinal, and others provide food. But they all help support the ecosystem in some way. If you look at the food web you will see how each thing helps each other. The arrows show which way the energy flows. For example, the jaguar eats the capybara so the energy flows that way. All food webs start with either the sun or producers. Producers are organisms that go through the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is when plants take water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to make food for it. Some plants don’t go through photosynthesis so they must be decomposers. Decomposers get energy from breaking down dead plants and animals.

Momordica Charantia

The Momordica Charantia is a vine that is commonly referred to as the bitter melon. It has yellow flowers and of course a melon. It has many, many medicinal properties like lowering blood sugar and detoxifying. It gets eaten mainly by humans because no animal would eat it. It can climb from the forest floor to as high as it can go.

Bixa Orellana

The Bixa Orellana is a poisonous plant that can only be eaten by humans. If an animal eats it, it could be killed. One of its defining characteristics is the prickly red seed pods. The pigments in the seed pods are toxic if not used right. Some tribes use the pigments as face paints or basket paints. Its leaves can be used for medicine too. It can be used to fix digestive problems and lower fevers. It is located in the forest floor layer.

TribesThere are many tribes in the Amazon rainforest and they each have their own

unique culture. A culture is a way of life. Some tribes are nomadic which means they

move from place to place to settle. When the cropland becomes unfertile they do that. The people of the tribe get around in many ways like walking, canoeing, and running. Ideas can also get around by trading, talking, and sharing culture.

Yanomami

The Yanomami tribe is indigenous to the Amazon rainforest. Something indigenous is something that was found in that place originally. The Yanomami are a group of hunters and gatherers. They hunt mainly with bows and arrows and blow darts. There are from 50-300 Yanomami in a tribe. Each tribe lives in one house called a shabono. They are large circular structures that have a hole in the middle of the roof. The uncovered area is used for meetings. The covered place is where they live. Some researchers find the Yanomami to be a very violent tribe. Other people tend to find them gentle people.

They use many things from the rainforest in many different ways like painting their bodies or building shabonos. For painting baskets, they use things like bixa orellana and other berries. To build their shabonos, they use a variety of plants from the forest. They eat mainly fish, other meat, and insects. They also eat crops they plant. One of their cultural traditions is that they have a big yearly feast where they invite all of the surrounding villages. They like to keep their families “tight”. This means they marry their cousins. Interaction with outsiders has been mainly a bad thing. First a group of miners tried to exterminate a tribe of Yanomami. Then a scientist intentionally released measles into a tribe to test their immune systems.

Kayapo

The Kayapo tribe is another tribe indigenous to the rainforest. They live in huts with thatched palm leaf roofs. They are big enough to hold one family and still be roomy. The room has no dividers so everyone can see each other. Their tribe has a chief that leads meetings and tells people what to do. They use things from the rainforest as medicine, food, decorations, to build houses, and many other things. One of their cultural beliefs is that when you die you go to the village of the dead where you sleep during the day and hunt at night. They eat lots of protein rich foods. They also eat things from their gardens. They usually are very nice to guests. They would lay out a bamboo

bed and would prepare you food. Children usually wear colored bands around their waist and across their chest. Interactions with outsiders like loggers and miners have led them to start wearing western style clothing like shorts. Other interactions were not so good. Miners introduced diseases that the Kayapo weren’t immune to. They are excellent necklace and bracelet makers.

The Downfall of the Rainforest

There are many bad things happening in the rainforest, like logging for example. Not only are they cutting down trees and depleting the world of oxygen, they are

releasing carbon dioxide into the air destroying the ozone layer. Mining is a big problem too. The runoff from mining pollutes streams and kills trees. Plus, smoke from the charcoal they burn destroys the ozone. Now from all of these things that have happened the rainforest has gone from covering 14% of the land to only 6%. This is mainly deforestation, which is the cutting down of the rainforest.

There is something that can be good and bad for the rainforest: ecotourism. Ecotourism is touring nature so that it lowers environmental impact. But while

you’re touring nature you could be hurting it. You could drop some trash or trample a bunch of plants.

How You Can Help Stop the Downfall

I want you to go out and help conserve and protect the rainforest. You can help conserve the rainforest by making a simple donation. Or you could be an ecotourist. So here’s the good part about ecotourism. The money you spend could go towards helping the rainforest. Plus looking at the beauty might inspire you. Or loggers going on a tour could sway them to stop destroying the rainforest.

We get many things from the Amazon rainforest like latex, food, medicine, and minerals. “So what, there’s plenty of that stuff in the world” you might say. That’s true, but where do you think we get 1/5 of our oxygen. So, do you want to live in a world without trees, without oxygen? I think not. So who do you want to be: One of the ones that sit around and watch the world die or one of the ones that makes a difference?

Citations

http://www.amazon-rainforest.org/amazon-products.htmlhttp://abitabout.com/Yanomamihttp://www.amazon-indians.org/yanomami.htmlhttp://www.everyculture.com/wc/Brazil-to-Congo-Republic-of/Kayapos.htmlhttp://indian-cultures.com/Cultures/yanomamo.htmlhttp://www.wildernessclassroom.com/www/schoolhouse/rainforest_library/animal_library/macaw.htmhttp://www.amersol.edu.pe/ms/7th/7block/jungle_research/new_cards/41/report41dt.htmlhttp://www.animalcorner.co.uk/rainforests/capybara.htmlhttp://www.rebsig.com/capybara/capyfacts.htmhttp://www.rain-tree.com/bitter-melon-powder.htmhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/ http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/photos/mammals-38.html

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