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| Sunday, 29 May 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Amazing Amazon
The Amazon river, the second largest in the world, cuts across these areas from the Andes to the sea. More than one third of all species in the world live in this giant tropical forest. There are over 2,500 tree species alone, which is one third of the world's tropical wood. Nearly 30,000 of Latin America's 100,000 plant species are found in the Amazon forest, which is high in rainfall, has a relatively complex topography and varied soils. A large percentage of this remarkable region's original forested area is still intact with moist, lowland tropical forests, unique flooded savannas dotted with palm trees and bamboo-dominated forests spreading across an area, the size of England. Agriculture is a major cause of deforestation of this amazing forest which supports the world's highest diversity of freshwater fish, birds and butterflies as well as other kinds of organisms. The Amazon rainforest is very old. The fossils discovered here have shown that the plants of 20 million years ago were very similar to those growing there today. It is known that the climate of the region has remained stable throughout this time.
There are literally hundreds of kinds of trees in any one part of the rainforest, with the individuals of any one species widely separated from each other. There can be more plant species in one hectare of the Amazon rainforest than there are in all of Europe. Over 200 species of trees have been found in one hectare alone! The diversity and contrast of life in the Amazon is amazing. The Amazon rainforest is important not just for its size but also for its high bio-diversity or the numbers of plant and animal species that can be found in the area. The western edge of the Amazon, where the lowland forest meets the lower slopes of the Andes mountain is the most diverse portion of the Amazon. Even though a wide range of plants and animal life has been identified, a large amount yet emains unknown. Scientists estimate that only 40 per cent of all insect species have been identified. What is biodiversity?
Beta-diversity is the change in species that might be found as you move from one acre to the adjoining one. If completely two different species are found in the adjoining areas, then the beta-diversity of those areas becomes higher. Bio-diversity is still more than either alpha and beta diversity. It is also the sum of the interactions between species, with the number of potential interactions increasing, with the increasing species. More on the fauna and flora of the Amazon jungle next week. |
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Covering an area of over 2.3 million square miles (over six million
square km), the Amazon is one of the world's greatest rainforests. It
spreads across much of South America, covering nine countries, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Surinam and
Venezuela. The largest part is contained within Brazil. 
The constant growth conditions have allowed millions of different
species of plants and animals to evolve.The trees of Amazonia are
intriguing! Many species have huge buttresses (triangular plates of wood
in the angle between the tree trunk and the roots) radiating out of their
base, often, as many as ten. These are usually the largest trees in the
forest whose towering crowns form a ceiling over smaller umbrella-like
crowns at a lower level. 
Intenational Day for Biological Diversity was on May 22.Having often
heard the word biodiversity you may wonder what exactly it is.Biodiversity
is more than just a simple listing of species that can be found in a
particular area, for example the Amazon rainforest. The diversity comes in
many stages Alpha-diversity is the number of species encountered in a set
area, for instance, an acre or hectare of rainforest. The Alpha-diversity
becomes higher as the number of species keeps increasing. 
