Amazon Rainforest

A walk-through of the Amazon forest and its geographic features

In this map above, it shows where the Amazon rainforest is located

5 Themes of Geography

MOVEMENT

When in the Amazon forest movement is majority by boat, whether you go with the tour guide or you're on vacation a lot of the movement is going to be on the water, to get from place to place. Many trades don't happen here so not a lot of movement by people is coming through the forest, although a lot of movement is made by the animals living there. from monkeys and sloths and climbing around trees to snakes slithering around the forest. Lots of sounds will be made by the animals, especially the sounds of the water. Although the water isn't harsh and waves won't be crashing like a normal beach.

REGION

So with this Amazon forest and the Amazon river being one of the largest draining systems in the world, you will only find this river in South America. this river runs through most of South America and many countries. With about majority of the forest, 60% is in Brazil followed by Peru with 13% and Columbia with 10. There are minor amounts and other states of South America. This all being said its region is natively in South America, but the majority of Brazil.

In this map above, this gives you a overview of what is considered the forest and the rest of the country

HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

This map is a visual of the major impacts of ranching and agriculture

The human-environment interaction is very different at a place here, lots of tourists, like to go through the river and adventure through the forest, which could be extremely dangerous. Although many people do want to engage in this beautiful place it's only seen as an attraction but to some, it's seen as much more. Many people come to the Amazon forest to go mining, ranching, and even get oil and gas extractions. Many people also enjoy the agriculture of all the plant and animal life. The people who do enjoy the agriculture of nature there like to do research on many animals in plants where they contribute to finding new species in their biome that had never been seen or heard of. People go out and find new species so that way when they come back to the United States, they can go ahead and plant it that they found.

LOCATION

The Amazon River is located in Brazil, South America, and is about 2,600,000 ft.² this is the largest river in South America and the second largest river system in the world. This forest is known for the Amazon river that goes through Columbia, Peru, and other South American countries

PLACE

The environment of the Amazon Forest is very humid, hot and moist. During the day it gets up to 100 degrees and at night gets to about 60 degrees where it is still slightly warm. Amazon forest contains lots of animals, including jaguars, eagles and is the home to sloths. Amazon forest also contains many plants, species, freshwater fish species, as well as almost 400 types of reptiles.

this map above, this shows the amount and range of species in the different areas of the Amazon rainforest

Earth and Sun relationships

Considering the fact that the Amazon forest is the majority of plants and animals summary is necessary for all these plants to create the perfect photosynthesis. when all the plants have the right amount of photosynthesis, this can productively continue to make her ecosystem grow which plants growing is a very big part of that system. Not only is sunlight very important but so is the amount of water being released into Earth. Since this forest is so huge, it releases a massive amount of water which contributes to the atmosphere as well as creates rain clouds that contribute to regional areas. The rain cycle in the Amazon forest is extremely important since heavy, rainfall sustains their ecosystem since the majority is plant and animal-based. Weather is also very important in the Amazon forest. If the weather got too hot it could turn the entire forest into a dry savanna, as well as the fact of rain patterns, which are extremely important as well. this being said it's extremely important that rain is properly falling because of lack of rain could affect water ability, agriculture, and biodiversity. Since trees are also very big in the Amazon forest, if they are falling and broken by a very heavy wind, this could lead to them releasing carbon dioxide that they stored while they were alive.

This is the amazon forest as.a whole in South America

Latitude

The latitude of the Rainforest is located 3.4653 S and 62.2159 W. located in the southern western hemisphere. This forest is boarded by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and to the west is the pacific.

Ocean currents

although the Amazon forest is a river, to consideration since the river is a big body of water this river often carries out freshwater to the north after that the Atlantic then moves it to Eastward

Wind

In Amazon forest when does usually light and doesn't tend to travel faster than 6 mph. The average speed of wind is usually 4 to 5 miles. When in the Amazon forest, the light gust of air tends to make it feel hotter and humid. Strong winds are often found during the rainy season which lasts from January to June, which gives you a higher chance to be caught in a wind. during the season trees can fall down and break as well as seen much more animals compared to the winter

Elevation

Although elevation is not very common in this area the river can vary from sea level. Amazon River basin can range from 62 to 164 feet in its shallowest sections to 330 feet in deeper sections. in this forest since it is mainly treason river the basin can range from 20 to 60 m above sea level

Relief

In this specific region, most of the basin is extremely flat. There's not much elevation to the forest, except for the fact that elevations could range from the sea level of the Amazon River to almost 6500 meters which is about 4 miles above sea level. This includes the Brazilian Central Shield and Guyana Shield, the central Amazonian lowlands, and the Amazon plain. Although there is slight relief overall still very flat.

Nearness to water

Considering the fact that the Amazon forest has a huge river flowing through it the entire forest is surrounded by water. The closest body of river to the Amazon forest is the Atlantic Ocean the river flows into the Atlantic, which is located on the northeastern coast of Brazil.

Clouds

clouds are an important factor in the Amazon forest because the amount of moisture that is in the forest later then gets evaporated into the clouds and released again into its surrounding region. There needs to be clouds to be able to suck up all the water and rainfall because if there is no water or wetness in the forest the entire basin could potentially go dry and also impact the biodiversity that lives in the region

Vegetation

Vegetation in the Amazon forest is extremely common, especially since the forest is covered in pure trees. Trees are one of the main sources of vegetation. There are an amazing amount of different types of trees from rubber trees to rosewood. Vegetation could also be found in things like palms, Cocoa plants, and aroids which all help make materials like necklaces and hammocks. Cocoa which is the base for chocolate and Aroids which grows on tree trunks. Vegetation is very common in this region can find lots of material here.

Climate and weather patterns

In the Amazon forest, the climate is considered to be tropical only because it is very hot and human temperatures there and there's lots of rainfall throughout the entire year so you can't tell when the wet and dry seasons are they don't have any distinct season and they consider December months although they still get rain. In the Amazon forest, they typically win. They have more of a light wind pattern compared to the other places. This makes the air feel much more humid than it already is and the average speed can go from about 6 mph to 6.5 mph. The reason there isn't much wind here is because of the amount of trees the trees block the wind almost creating kind of a barrier so the air can't get in. Rainfall is also very important in the Amazon forest vegetation is very sensitive and can detect when there is a change in the rainfall so typically when it rains too much there will be a reduction of greenness across the land. Usually, when there is more rainfall, it typically is a bit cooler in the Amazon forest not making it very cold, but just a bit to give you slightly cooler temperatures.

Precipitation and Hydrology

Precipitation varies in the Amazon forest. It can go anywhere from 59 to about 120 inches of rain yearly the main factor in the Amazon forest is the amount of precipitation that is produced to the entire land the reason is because the entire forest depends on water to not only help its vegetation but to help the life that is there. Although that is not the only type of precipitation and source of water that is going in and out of the forest, there's also the huge river that goes throughout the entire forest which contributes to the hydrological cycle, which provides moisture and water supplies to their biome, but the water spreads out into the ocean, creating more flow for countries and also regulates precipitation patterns, and rainfall patterns.

Water bodies and features

water bodies are very important to the biome, especially because there is a huge river in the middle of the entire biome and there is oceans on both sides surrounding this country. In the Amazon forest, this contains rivers, lakes, and Clearwater not only the Amazon river this also includes other places like Blackwater rivers, Javari river, and Urubu river. With the amount of freshwater that is in the Atlantic ocean and other oceans that are around this is great for biodiversity in the Amazon forest because this gives lots of life in the ocean and lives in the forest, a crucial rule in our cycle. it's also important the water to be flowing in and out so the water is kind of regulating a cycle where there's constantly fresh salty, etc. type of water going through the river and not just one type to also give aquatic life a role.

Vegetation and biomes

The Amazon bone is a diverse biome because there are lots of factors that contribute to creating this biome. This biome is made up of lots of different ecosystems, including forest grassland swamp rainforest, Savannah, etc., and the biome is a huge biodiversity of plants, animal species, reptiles birds fish, etc., considering that this biome is extremely huge with lots of different diversity. It is very important that vegetation on harmed and untouched because there are lots of species and animals and plants counting on vegetation to be there for them. After all, it is practically their home. Vegetation plays a huge part in the Amazon forest because the whole line is everywhere green and trees and water. Lots of sources to find minerals and lots of nature. Predominantly most of the areas very moist and dense since it does rain year round, it is constantly always raining

Ecosystem types

The ecosystem types that are found here are places like degraded forest that are impacted by human activity meaning that this place is considered a tourist attraction. Lots of people come here, not only to mine but to view and see what this place looks like sometimes could cause damage to the place in question. This also include places like higher altitudes this, considering that it is not just flat land there is mountains on the other side with higher altitudes and uneven ground that could cause you to be higher than sea level. also flood forest along the river, so this means that there is flooding where the river is although the environment has adapted to the vegetation and the water function so the animals adapt to the flooding. There's also another major factor which is mangrove forest this meaning there is saltwater and freshwater mixing this could be where of the river and the ocean meet. This provides an important habitat for lots of marine life that lives in the river, but in the ocean, especially when they .

Biodiversity

again, as I previously stated there's a lot of biodiversity in this biome. It ranges anywhere from birds, animals, marine life, species, rocks, and mining soil there are lots of different animals and nature that contribute to the Amazon forest not only are there a species and natural life, but the trees are also a very important part. There's lots of diversity and all the trees and there's a huge range of trees that contribute to the vegetation as well. The biodiversity also includes rivers and water flow the different type of water that contributes to this biome. As well as the fact that they don't have different weather patterns so their biodiversity release stays the same usually all your round because there's not a change in seasons. Animals like eagles, jaguars, eels, and anacondas all are predators in the forest. Lots of them are adjusted to life here, so lots of them know how to swim and know their strategies, especially since most of them know how to camouflage themselves to hunt their prey.

Species interactions

usually, the way species interact in the Amazon forest is something called a symbolic relationship, where to species can basically defend each other if they are ever in danger where they exchange harmful tactics to whoever is attacking them or they can also contribute to something called mutualism when they were together to benefit from one another, this could be them traveling in a group which is very common and lots of animals species as well as perhaps eating or using something to get the predator away from them. for example, monarch butterflies travel in a group for safety this happens to be so that way if a predator does come and try to attack one butterfly, the whole group is there and can attacked altogether.

Habitats

So again, like I've stated that this is a dense moist tropical forest so lots of the life that does live here and knows how to adapt between land and water, not only land, but they know how to adjust between the temperature because it is very hot there they know how to suppress I would consider that there are most natural habitat to be a swamp because there is bodies of water animals. Lots of greenness is very hot and moist. It is technically considered a little people consider it a tropical forest. Typically animals, you will find here like jaguars, snakes, monkeys, typically ones you will find in regular forest.

Migration and Dispersal

In the Amazon forest birds, fish and other animals tend to migrate to other regions starting birds typically can travel tons of miles per year, so they do travel toward the US East Coast. This includes birds like the indigo bunting bird as well as shorebirds which are native to the Amazon basin. the fish that are native to the Amazon river usually end up in the lower or higher parts of the Amazon. Lots of other animals usually change their location because of diets or or dry season from June to December. They probably weren't getting enough rain or it was probably getting a little too humid lastly, crocodiles saltwater crocodiles that are native to the river, moving to open seas, typically go very far and long distance, there's not an estimate of how far or how much they could go

Historical Biography

there are lots of historical events that happened in the Amazon forest that did contribute to the making of the Amazon river let's start off with the formation of the river, which actually the river went the opposite way in the direction from East to west until we had the mountains blocked its floor to the Pacific Ocean. Not only was the formation change, but the river was actually created to be a Barrier to contribute to distributions in Amazon forest. there was also lots of landscape changing with ancient the wetlands separated western, and eastern.

Endemism and Rarity

so the Amazon actually has the worlds richest regions for endemism because like I did mention, there are very many tree species where there's about 62 percent of tree species. Not only is there very rare trees. There is rare animals, including giant otters jaguars, which are highly endangered. There's the Amazon river dolphin, which is a pink dolphin and gold lion Tamaran monkey, which is a species that looks almost like a lion, but weighs a pound, but is a monkey Amazon forest has over 46 endangered species although with the amount of population of humanity that is traveling and wanting to see this lots of the species have been significantly affected by this causing these animals, species distinct and highly endangered.

Invasive species

invasive species are organisms that can harm our environment and one's health to the area that they're introduced in and the Amazon forest actually has quite a few of species, including the golden muscle which is found in wetlands. black rats which caused deforestation is considered the cause of invasion of black rats in the rainforest. wild boars which are invasive species in the world because they can negatively impact the area you are in because they can hold diseases and lots of other issues with introducing other species and living organisms to the diseases. And a specific type of grass called capim-navalha which can cause diseases to kill grasses which lead to pasture degradation meaning that this can kill lots of greenness around the area, causing everything including grass to die.

Geosphere

Considering that the Amazon forest has a great amount of space and species that live there, there will be different rural areas in this forest. A landform is when usually marked in three distinct categories. There are hills considered at the bottom, low mountains usually found by streams, and have weather-resistant sand tops. Although the Amazon forest doesn't have much sand compared to a desert, small mountains, and some outer parts are formed this way. Then finally there are larger plateaus which are just bigger mountains. As for the topography aspect of this, the basin is 6,500 meters above sea level which includes in the plans, both shields and lowlands.

Erosion\tectonic activity

Occurring from 2002 to 2020 the Amazon for us has been impacted from wildfire outrage. A little particularly in 2022 on August 22,, 3358 fires were displayed in the Brazilian Amazon where this was recorded the highest amount of fires in any 24 hour period since 2007. The questions of many people asking if the fires in Amazon are naturally a crane which the answer is no, and the majority of the fires that have happened in the last few years have been occurred by people because they need from the fact that a genuinely moist reinforces that have typically a lot of water do not burn. Need to say the less usually the fires that aren't ignited in the Amazon are usually intentional. The Amazon does it go through the tectonic activity which includes distortion of the mountain ranges, subduction and collision. Usually tectonic activity does interfere with the landscape since earthquakes influence are bound to happen. This does affect the basin.

Weathering

The main type of weathering that most common in the Amazon forest would be considered chemical weathering since this is a tropical rainforest this region typically experiences lots of rainfall high temperatures humidity, which makes this region more ideal for chemical weathering. This is also more ideal for a chemical weathering, since considering the fact that the river is in between two different types of seas, which the seas do contain different types of water, temperatures, textures, salts, minerals, etc. We also had to include the factors of the nature life that live their species animals plants that do affect the chemical weathering and make the area as rural as it is.

Rock and Soil/ composition

In this photo posted above, it actually shows some of the different areas that have structural arches sedimentary, basins, and the Andes. This helps you differ which areas have more rocky Hills and what areas have the stream and plateaus and plains.

the Amazon basin is actually built upon a pre-barbarian Bedrock and the layers are made up of soft, clean sand deposits as across the majority of the Amazon, the rivers really flow over sedimentary rocks from the basin. Most of those rocks come from the Amazon lowland, which migrates back and forth across from the lowland to the plains. As for soil composition, the Amazon forest has low natural fertility since they do lack some chemicals and some acidity this means that small areas will have reddish soils of considerable natural fertility.

Mineral resources

earlier in some of the paragraphs, I mentioned that people do enjoy coming mining in the Amazon forest, which is actually a big environmental footprint in the Amazon forest. Usually the forest contains large quantities of things like iron or copper tin nickel, and a really big one which is gold. This makes a lot of these minerals that miners fine are very appealing to companies around the world which makes the forest populated and constantly known for the mineral.

Land use and development

Throughout lots of my data I collected the Amazon forest is at risk of deforestation, which is actually the forest disappearing at a very first rate and this is due to the open areas for agriculture. This means that a lot of the areas that are in the Amazon rivers are open to the public where people are constantly mining and looking for specific plants or animals which is taking away from the habitat making the habitat smaller and losing its vegetation slowly. Everything that's in the habitat right now has adapted to where it's at and what it eats where they live, and the habitat has adapted to it as well, which means that the change of scenery and vegetation could affect the habitat. Since the forest is being used by not only the life that lives there that needs the habitat people that are foreigners to the forest and just wanna go to mine to destroy or to go take something out of its habitat, takes away from the whole vegetation aspect which doesn't allow the forest to develop just continuous to get smaller and ruined by every visit made by people.

Environmental studies

The Amazon forest is a big part of the atmosphere and has a huge relation in the physical geography because it actually has lots of carbon. This actually absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and photosynthesis has been through plants and trees, and because there are so many greenery plants this helps climate change.

The Amazon forest hydrosphere would actually count on all of the water vapor that is being released from all the clouds around all of the plants and trees that are in the forest. This helps to cool the air and again forms the clouds around these plants to create water and then collect water all over again.

The Amazon force is actually very important in the viral sphere because it is one of the biggest places that contain lots of species plants animals lots of natural life it is a very significant factor in the earth's biosphere. They also influence climate patterns, and again like I said for the atmosphere they collect lots of carbon dioxide from the spot.

So in the Amazon forest geosphere tends to be rocky landforms, and since the Amazon forest is rivers at the GC still does contribute to the Amazon for us because this gives us a foundation for the forest to outgrow into its area as well as try to understand the river system and the way that it looks like on a specific type of map and geography level, as well as trying to understand the components of the soil that is in the vegetation life that lives in the forest.

Next, I'm gonna talk about some environmental studies that may impact or have a significant effect on my location and strictly I'm going to talk about human impact and how human activity influences and affects the location. Previously, in other paragraphs, I did mention that human impact is not really beneficial to this environment because usually they tend to just find the good in this area and take it out leaving the area messy or destroyed not only have they destroyed different areas because of mining or digging for gold or specific plants that they are looking, for. They have also created intentional fires to burn down this entire forest, which takes away a lot from the Earth, especially away from the nature life that lives there, and will take away from the natural landscape as well. Again, human impact has a lot to do in this habitat because destruction is very crucial in an environment like this where a fire can spread very quickly and burn very fast in an area where it is very humid.

I'm actually going to talk about biodiversity once again because again this forest is home to lots of native animals species plants trees, which they have lots of interesting animals and trees and plants that we've never seen before. A lot of of these trees are also very rare trees as well as the animals. They find some of the rarest minerals in this forest as well finding gold, silver copper, as well as the fact that this river is right in the middle of two different seas and these two different seas are too completely different temperatures different sides of the world different oceans one is saltwater one is freshwater. This forest actually has a lot more to offer although it's best for human activity to try to stay as minimal as possible because again we don't wanna disturb the life that already lives there. I'm considering the fact that they have been there and adopted there for maybe possibly their whole entire life.

Lastly I'm gonna talk about climate and weather patterns and what I've examine from over the months of looking up lots of information about the Amazon forest, which what I have found in my research is that typically the weather doesn't really change and when there is a slight change it will get only 5 to 10° hotter or colder just because the environment that they live in is already very humid and it doesn't change, especially since there is always clouds and vegetation happening as well as there's rainfall typically almost all year round so they're constantly getting water making it humid and what they're constantly ask for short-term events they don't really have short-term events only considering when it is a little bit drier, but most animals and species that do live in this forest have adapted to the wetland where it's constantly raining. Considering that there is a whole country that lives around this forest, I believe that the human activity that is in this climate has adopted to it, and they are used to the humidity and the constant rain.


In this photo posted above, it actually shows some of the different areas that have structural arches sedimentary, basins, and the Andes. This helps you differ which areas have more rocky Hills and what areas have the stream and plateaus and plains.

In this map above, it shows where the Amazon rainforest is located

In this map above, this gives you a overview of what is considered the forest and the rest of the country

This map is a visual of the major impacts of ranching and agriculture

this map above, this shows the amount and range of species in the different areas of the Amazon rainforest

This is the amazon forest as.a whole in South America