The Amazon Rainforest is probably one of the most famous forests there is on the earth. This should not come as a surprise because it is the largest one found in the planet. However, many should know that there is more to this place than its width. What are other facts about the Amazon Rainforest that not all people are familiar of?
First of all, the Amazon Rainforest is considered to be the biggest in the world. This tops the two largest listed namely the Indonesia and Congo Basin. As a matter of fact, the enormity of the Amazon Rainforest is the combination of the two latter mentioned.
In measurement, it is in 6.9 million square kilometers. If this is to be converted, it reaches almost 2.72 million square miles. The South American continent is actually covered by the forest. The Amazon Basin is responsible in such. It comprises almost 40 percent of the continent. Biogeographically speaking, this comes with the Guianas, which is another rainforest present. However, what makes this different is that it is situated outside the Amazon Basin. This only encompasses 7.8 to 8.2 million square kilometer of the United States. In here, only 80% is the area forested.
What goes with the forest is the Amazon River. Just like the rainforest, this is also considered the largest because of the volume it can hold. This features 1,100 tributaries to its name. Almost 17 of this is 1000 miles longer. There was a time when the Amazon River flowed in the west-ward. This was in contrary to its east-ward direction. Today, it was in the latter direction already. This was also in connection to the rise of the Andes. This flows in the Atlantic Ocean.
In totality, there are 16,000 tree species in Amazon. Almost 390 billion of these are individual trees. In Brazil alone, there is two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest. Since it is a reflection of a reach ecosystem, it is a given that there are also insects in the Amazon forest. To date, there are 2.5 million of them listed. Half of this is claimed to be living in the canopy. However, this is yet to be proven.
The GDP of South America is mostly produced in areas which are meant to receive water from the Amazon. The same is also true for rainfall. As a matter of fact, there is 70 percent of this. Deforestation became rampant in Amazon too. This declined though came 2004. The rate of this solely fell in Brazil alone. There were reasons for this. This included the new area protection, macroeconomic trends, law enforcement improvement, monitoring through a satellite, among others. Basically, the private sector helped in this endeavor. Various environmental groups were also present and involved in the process. This was the way for preservation to be made possible. In the Amazon, cattle ranching was given a really high regard. It was one of the reasons for the case of deforestation. Good thing, this was put to a stop now.