The Amazon: The real reasons to preserve it.

General Science

13.05.2021

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The Amazon: The real reasons to preserve it.

On planet Earth, there are several regions with tropical forests, they are located in Africa, Asia, America, and the northeast of Australia, between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are characterized by their hot and humid climate. Rains throughout the year. They have in common that their soil is quite poor, their wealth is on the surface, in the life it supports.

An area of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. 2019. (Wikipedia)

The Amazon rainforest is part of the tropical rainforests of the world. Located in South America, with a proportion of 60% in Brazil, also extending to Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana. This vast territory occupies 5,500,000 km².

Unknown. ¨Amazonia¨ Wikipedia, 2019. Wikipedia

The Amazon develops around the Amazon River. This river is born in Peru, passes through Colombia, and finishes in Brazil. It is the longest river with the highest flow in the world. So it provides a perfect environment, so fauna and flora abound. The Amazon River represents approximately one-fifth of the world’s river flow.

Is it true that the Amazon is the lung of the planet?

In 2019, fires of great importance developed in the Amazon. What caught the attention of the world, activists, celebrities, and politicians on social media raised their voices to make a call for attention on this issue. Some wielded the motto that the Amazon was the lung of the planet, as it produced 20% of the planet’s total oxygen. This seemed like the end, fires that devastated hectares of the Amazon, without this extensive jungle it would seem that we would run out of oxygen.

However, this statement is not entirely true. First, a lung is designed to breathe in air and breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2), so the statement is functionally meaningless. But let’s see what’s behind the oxygen production process.

Unknown. ¨Amazonas River¨. Viator, 2021. https://www.viator.com/

Air is made up of nitrogen (78.08%), oxygen (20.94%), which adds up to 99.02%. The remaining 0.98% of gases are represented by argon, carbon dioxide (greenhouse effect), and other gases. So, there is not so much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that 20% of this total is synthesized in the Amazon. It has to do with the balance of matter.

Photosynthesis is the chemical process, by which plants transform inorganic matter into organic matter. Photosynthesis works with the presence of light. Plants take in carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment and expel oxygen (O2). However, once the sun sets, photosynthesis stops, and plants begin to breathe oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, as all living things do. Trees have been found to consume slightly more of the oxygen they produce during the day. The remaining oxygen in the environment must surely be consumed by the numerous microbes that live on the surface of the rainforest, and that help to decompose all the dead organic matter.

Therefore, this process does not produce oxygen to be consumed by the planet. The oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere is due to the accumulation produced, during more than one billion years by the oceans’ phytoplankton. There lies the true oxygen producer of the planet.

It is important to note that the Amazon has an important role in cooling the planet. The rainforest can help mitigate climate change, by helping to reduce the planet’s temperature.

The importance of the Amazon lies in its biodiversity

The greatest wealth of the Amazon is in its biodiversity. This vast jungle is the ecosystem with the greatest biodiversity on the planet. Many plants and animals have probably not yet been discovered. 20% of the plant species are located in the Amazon rainforest. These plants have a scientific interest, to extract substances that can help cure diseases.

Unknown. An Amazonian frog. ¨Muy Interesante¨ 2021. https://www.muyinteresante.es/naturaleza/articulo/esperanza-para-los-anfibios-261405080354

As for the fauna, in the Amazon, there are native species, which would disappear forever without the jungle.

Additionally, the Amazon is populated by indigenous communities, these communities must be protected and preserved.

Deforestation and fires

The fires that occur in the Amazon are caused by man. The purpose to create areas for agriculture and cattle raising. In just one month of 2019, approximately 85 hectares of forest were burned.

However, the jungle soil is very poor, and in four or five harvests it will no longer have any more nutrients, thus ending agricultural production. For what they will burn again and thus a vicious cycle is made that threatens the Amazon annually.

Cecilia Tombes. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/

Without trees, the water cycle is in danger and thus can turn a landscape rich and abundant with life, into a dry and lifeless desert.

All the efforts made to preserve the Amazon should be applauded. Understanding the importance and value it has for humanity will help to have more awareness. We need the rainforests to remain intact, so that future generations can also enjoy and know them.