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Ecosystem
of Amazon Rainforest
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Introduction
An
ecosystem defines living organisms and their physical environment and how they interrelate with one another and the
environment. This paper will explore the ecosystem of the Amazon Rainforest, in
Brazil. Amazon rainforest covers an
extensive geographical area of about 5.5 million square kilometers, extending
to nine South American countries namely Venezuela, Suriname, Columbia, Bolivia,
Guyana, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and French Guyana. However, the distribution of
the rainforest is quite uneven in the nine countries, with some holding bigger
portions. The abiotic phenomena of the Amazon rainforest comprise of relatively
high humidity, which is attributed to a protective barrier against forest
fires. Direct precipitation accounts for about 9 feet of water in the Amazon rainforest,
which is essential to harbor a large number
of species in the rainforest. The forest has a nutrient-rich
soil base with most of the nutrients coming from the animal droppings and the
humus from decomposed plant species. Moreover,
rocks in the Amazon rainforest undergo
weathering processes and breakdown to yield more ions to the soil, necessary
for the growth of the plant species in
the rainforest.
Amazon
Rainforest has a variety (more than 40,000 plant species) of plant species that
span from epiphytes (cacti, water lilies, Orchids, among other) to big trees.
However, the palms are the most common tree species in most parts of the
rainforest, making it the dominant tree species. Moreover, Amazon rainforest is
a habitat for more than 427 mammals, 1300
birds, 378 reptiles, 400 amphibians. Mammals such as the primates dominate the
animal population due to the favorable climatic conditions such moderate
temperature of about 79 F. However, recent research by Edwards (2014) reports
that the temperature in Amazon forest is rising at a significant rate to more
than a quarter of the whole forest due to increasing carbon dioxide levels in
the atmosphere.
The
most striking part of the Amazon rainforest is the nutrient cycle of plants in
the forest. Typically, no one applies inorganic fertilizers the Amazon forest
to improve soil fertility for the survival of the vast number of plants on this
forest. However, most of the soil nutrients culminate
from the high rate of decomposition of the flora. While the humus converts to
nutrients with the aid of vast microorganisms prevalent in the high humid
soils, the plants shed more leaves creating a nutrient source for the soil. The
whole process occurs quite often creating a perfect nutrient cycle (Balmford,
2015).
Most
of the mammals in this forest feed on plant herbs and fruits On the other hand;
there is a significant level of predation for various animal species in the
Amazon rainforest. In the Amazon rainforest, there are highest order predators
that comprise of jaguars, gorillas, and anacondas that do not have particular
predators. The primary consumers in this forest include macaws, monkeys,
toucans, and sloths. Typical secondary
predators include the Jaguars and the boa
constrictor. Moreover, there are decomposing agents in this food chain that
include the rainforest mushrooms, insects, and
other microorganisms.
Amazon’s
plant and animal species display great mutualism in the Amazon rainforest. For instance, the monkeys play a great role in
seed propagation for most trees that bear fruits. This is because they are
responsible for seed dispersal in the vast geographical coverage of the forest.
In addition to that, there is a prevalence of a great level of predation in the
Amazon forest. In fact, scientists attribute this phenomenon to the fact that
most of the animals in the Amazon forest have giant bodies that emanate from
both high consumption rate and due to the presence
of high oxygen levels in the rainforest. A good example of predation
relationship falls between the green anacondas and rodents. Moreover, these
anacondas prey on deer, fish, turtles and water reptiles such as caiman.
The
wild boar is the imminent invasive animal species in the Amazon forest, particularly found in large number on the
Brazilian part of the forest. These non-native boars have come along with a
dangerous disease that most of the other lack immunity for. The boar's excessive cause damage to the plants as
the feed on the ground plant species. In order to control the spread of these
boars, the wildlife service department of Brazil is sterilizing most males of
this animal breed in of this kind (Torralyo, 2017).
Conclusion
Amazon
harbors many plant and animal species due to the huge geographical coverage.
Most of the species in the Amazon forest have giant bodies due to the concentration of high oxygen levels and plenty of prey.
References
Edwards,
D. P., Tobias, J. A., Sheil, D., Meijaard, E., & Laurance, W. F. (2014).
Maintaining ecosystem function and services in logged tropical forests. Trends
in ecology & evolution, 29(9), 511-520.
Peh,
K. S. H., Balmford, A., Birch, J. C., Brown, C., Butchart, S. H., Daley, J.,
... & Millett, J. (2015). The potential
impact of invasive alien species on ecosystem services provided by a
tropical forested ecosystem: a case study from Montserrat. Biological Invasions, 17(1), 461-475.
Torralvo,
K., Botero-Arias, R., & Magnusson, W. E. (2017). Temporal variation in
black-caiman-nest predation in varzea of central Brazilian amazonia. PloS
one, 12(8), e0183476.
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