Amazon rainforest case study:

Question 1

5 quick facts about the Amazon:

Answer 1

• Located in South America.
• Home to over 1 million plant species.
• Largest tropical rainforest in the world.
• High levels of precipitation.
• Covers 40% of South America’s landmass.

Question 2

Water cycle in the Amazon rainforest:

Answer 2

• High levels of transpiration.
• Direct evaporation from rivers.
• Most rainfall is intercepted and re-evaporated only 30% makes it to the sea.
• 15% of Amazon river discharge into the sea is freshwater per day.
• Very wet, evaporation over the Atlantic is blown towards the Amazon.

Question 3

Carbon cycle in the Amazon rainforest:

Answer 3

• Rising productivity (growth) due to increased CO2 in the atmosphere. (offsetting climate change slightly).
• Short term offsets climate change, it causes trees to grow quicker but die younger, so is a negative in the long term.
• Can’t rely on Amazon being a carbon sink in the future.
• Fossil fuel emissions have now exceeded the sequestration of Carbon in Amazon rainforest.

Question 4

Human Activity affecting the Amazon:

Answer 4

• Deforestation. (70% takes place for cattle ranching/Agriculture)
• Pollutions/Climate change
• Global warming (human enhanced)

Question 5

Human activity affecting the water cycle within the Amazon:

Answer 5

1) Deforestation, mean fewer trees to reduced evapotranspiration and fewer condensation nuclei. Means less water vapour in the atmosphere, reduced clouds, so less rainfall which increases the risk of droughts.

2) Deforestation, reduced tree canopy means there is less interception, too much water on ground surface, more water in rivers and an increased risk of flooding.

Short term deforestation can lead to increases in river discharge in the long term there is an overall reduction in river discharge.

Question 6

Human activity affecting the carbon cycle:

Answer 6

1) Slash and burn deforestation, leaves lots of carbon on the ground and in the soil, and the rain then washes this carbon into the soil, and also rainfall washes away lots of carbon out of the system and into the hydrosphere.

2) Deforestation, reduced tree canopy and reduced rates of photosynthesis. Enhances GHG effect.

3) Human enhanced global warming, temps increases have caused droughts in 2005,2010 and 2016. Can lead to forest fires. A 4degrees celcius rise could kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest, CO2 would be released as dead material is decomposed.

Question 7

Attempts to limit human impacts:

Answer 7

Environmental laws: help protect rainforests e.g ban excessive logging and control land use.

Example: Central Amazon conservation complex, Brazil (2003) protects biodiversity in 49,000km squared of rainforest.

Selective logging: chop older trees, only a certain number of trees are taken from one area to keep the canopy and forest structure.

Replanting.

Question 8

Example of protectionism:

Answer 8

• Soy and Beef Moratoriam, supply chains.
• Had to make a commitment that they would only buy soy or beef from land which hadn’t been deforested illegally.
• Very successful, study found only 0.25% of Soy bean production had been planted on illegal deforested areas since the ban.

Question 9

Norway support: REDD initiative. UN

Answer 9

• Norway pledged 1 billion dollars to the Amazon fund. Result based financing.
• To date over 670 million dollars has been payed to Brazil under this agreement.

Question 10

Characteristics:

Answer 10

• Temps average around 27 degrees celcius throughout the year.
• Covers 5.5 million km squared.
• 80-120 GT of carbon stored in total.