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Known as the lungs of the earth and home to 10% of the world’s species, the Amazon helps regulate the global climate and its collapse would also lead to worldwide shockwaves that would impact ...
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 rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth" and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. [2] Rainforests as well as endemic rainforest species are rapidly disappearing due to deforestation, the resulting habitat loss and pollution of the atmosphere. [3]
Of the ecosystems, 34 are forest areas covering 78% of the biome, 6 are Andean covering 1.5%, 5 are floodplains covering 5.83%, 5 are savanna covering 12.75% and two are tropical steppes covering 1.89%. The Brazilian Amazon holds 30 of the 53 ecosystems, of which 19 are forests with 77.5% of the area. [16]
Losing the earth’s second lung proved fatal for many ecosystems, human populations, and even entire nations—shattering the security and stability of the continent and indeed the whole planet ...
Terra preta (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈtɛʁɐ ˈpɾetɐ], literally "black soil" in Portuguese), also known as Amazonian dark earth or Indian black earth, is a type of very dark, fertile anthropogenic soil found in the Amazon Basin.
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is the most dramatic example of a massive, continuous ecosystem and a biodiversity hotspot being under the immediate threat from habitat destruction through logging, and the less-visible, yet ever-growing and persistent threat from climate change. [11] [12]
Deforestation in the Maranhão state, Brazil, in July 2016. The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km 2 (1,200,000 sq mi), is the world's largest rainforest.It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests.