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The Amazon rainforest, [a] also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km 2 (2,700,000 sq mi), [ 2 ] of which 6,000,000 km 2 (2,300,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest . [ 3 ]
Tropical rainforest ecosystems include significant areas of biodiversity, often coupled with high species endemism. [4] Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet and roughly two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests.
Fungi are also very common in rainforest areas as they can feed on the decomposing remains of plants and animals. The great diversity in rainforest species is in large part the result of diverse and numerous physical refuges , [ 25 ] i.e. places in which plants are inaccessible to many herbivores, or in which animals can hide from predators.
These epiphytic plants attach to trunks and branches and obtain water and minerals from rain and debris that collects on the supporting plants. The fauna is similar to that found in the emergent layer, but more diverse. It is suggested that the total arthropod species richness of the tropical canopy might be as high as 20 million. [17]
Increasingly frequent and severe heat waves in the Southwest are damaging some desert plants known for thriving in harsh conditions. Saguaro cacti and agave have both suffered in sweltering ...
The Amazon biome has an area of 6,700,000 square kilometres (2,600,000 sq mi). [2] [a] The biome roughly corresponds to the Amazon basin, but excludes areas of the Andes to the west and cerrado (savannah) to the south, and includes lands to the northeast extending to the Atlantic ocean with similar vegetation to the Amazon basin. [2]
Many desert ecosystems are limited by available water levels, rather than rates of radiation or temperature. Water flow in these ecosystems can be thought of as similar to energy flow; in fact, it is often useful to look at water and energy flow together when studying desert ecosystems and ecology. [3]
Representative desert plants include the barrel cactus, brittlebush, chain fruit cholla, creosote. Additionally, it is also common to see crimson hedgehog, cactus, common saltbush and desert ironwood, fairy duster, Joshua tree. In some deserts Mojave aster, ocotillo, organ pipe cactus