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The Amazon Rainforest

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The Amazon rainforest has nearly 40,000 plant species, ranging from tiny mosses to huge trees.

Many of the Amazon’s trees are economically important, including luxury woods such as

mahogany, Brazil nut trees, which produce edible nuts and oils used in cooking and beauty

Products, kapok trees, which produce a cotton-like fibre often used as a stuffing for

cushions and Murumuru palms, which produce vitamin A. These trees and plants also

absorb huge amounts of carbon, helping to prevent dangerous climate change. It’s estimated that

the Amazon’s forests store between 90 and 140 billion tonnes of carbon. Many of the trees and

plants found in the Amazon and other rainforests are used by people around the world for food,

medicine, …show more content…

Rainforest plants like to live in a warm humid environment that

allows an enormous variation that is rare in more temperate climates. Some plants like the

orchids have beautiful flowers adapted to attract the attention of forest insects. Botanical experts

say that in 2.5 acres of the forest you can find 700 different species of trees and twice that

number of plants. Although it may be hard to believe, the soil of the Amazon rainforest is very

poor in nutrients.The Amazon rainforest soil holds only 20% of the nutrients in the forest; the

other 80% are in the trees and plants themselves. The explanation as to why is rather simple, the

Amazon Region has a dry and a wet season. In the wet season the water level of the Amazon

River rises dramatically, and in some places it reaches 15 meters higher than dry season. This means that in the rainy season a huge portion of the forest gets flooded. This works like a great

mechanism for exchanging and transporting nutrients and is crucial for the whole forest. The

Amazon rainforest soil works like a sponge and even being not very nutrient rich, it can hold

enough nutrients to help maintain the trees until the next rainy season. The Water Lily is …show more content…

In the Amazon rainforest you can find lakes

filled with water lilies almost creating an illusion of a solid floor. In the amazon there are over

40,000 plant species, 16,000 tree species, 5,600 fish species, 1,300 birds, 430+ mammals, 1,000+

amphibians, and 400+ reptiles.The mighty Amazon river is believed to have been discovered in

16th. century -around 1541- by Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana, later on, Portuguese

explorer Pedro Teixeira led the voyage upstream that opened it to world's knowledge, as legend

goes, he named it as such because of reported encounters with wild women warriors - the Greek

myth about the women warriors whose valor and war cry had fearful effect on their adversaries.

Its source is lake Lauricocha, in the Peruvian Andes, and known as the Marañon in its upper

river. Ucayali river joins the Marañon to eventually form the river of rivers. It spans over nine

South American countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana,

French Guinea and Suriname. Sixty percent of the total river lies in Brazil.The Amazon river is

the largest river basin in the world. It's about 4,195 miles long covering an area of 2,700,000

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