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Amazon risks changing from forest to savanna
Why is it in News?
- Study shows that approx. 40% of the Amazon risks crossing a tipping point from rainforest to savanna.
Details:
- Reasons:
(1) Greenhouse gas emissions reduce the rainfall needed to sustain its unique ecosystem.
(2) Forests are particularly sensitive to changes that affect rainfall for extended periods.
(3) As forests shrink, we get less rainfall downwind and this causes drying, leading to more fire and forest loss: a vicious cycle.
(4) 83% increase in forest fires in 2019 compared to 2018.
- Savanna-like environment:
(1) It witnesses far fewer trees.
(2) It is a mix of woodland and grassland.
(3) It also characterized by far less biodiversity.
- Rain forests:
(1) A rainforest is typically made up of four key layers: emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor.
(2) In the top emergent layer, trees as tall as 200 feet (60 meters) grow far apart and tall, their branches reaching above the canopy.
(3) The upper canopy, a deep layer of vegetation roughly 20 feet (6 meters) thick, houses most of the rainforest's animal species
(4) It forms a roof that blocks most light from reaching below.
Amazon rainforest:
- It is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America.
- Amazonia is the largest river basin in the world, and its forest stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the tree line of the Andes in the west.
- The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%.
- It covers minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.
- It is one of Earth's last refuges for jaguars, harpy eagles and pink dolphins.
- Tree-dwelling species include southern two-toed sloths, pygmy marmosets, saddleback and emperor tamarins, and Goeldi's monkeys.