The Amazon or Amazonia rainforest consists of a diverse plant and animal species where the relationship of the living and non-living creatures is transparent. It is known to be the richest moist broadleaf tropical jungle of the world because of its biodiversity. It has been concluded by many scientists that Amazon covers most of the river basin. The dependence of humans and animals to oxygen matters since 20% of the oxygen in the planet comes from the rainforest. Consequently, the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen by the biotic and abiotic creatures lets the Amazonia become the so-called “Lungs of the Earth”!
The evolution of species over the years led the scientists to record million of kinds. Based on findings in 2003, half of the world’s types of animals and plants are found in the Amazon canopy. Around 500 mammals, 300 reptiles, 175 species of lizards, 30 million insect types and 1/3 of the planet’s kinds of birds are all discovered and recorded over time.
Population
Around five hundred years ago, an estimated human population that’s 10 million in size was living in Amazonia. These people are said to be Indian indigenous peoples (IPs) composing of shamans and medicine men, who used to be wealthy in knowledge of the diversity of plants and animals. In 2003, the number of population of the IPs declined into 200,000 due to the destruction of 90 tribes during the late 1900’s.
Drought
At some point of the 21st century, drought brought dramatic impact on the rainforest and the Amazon River basin. In 2005, 734,000 square miles (1,900,000 km2) of the rainforest was affected by the drought. The impact got worse in 2010 which totally led the vegetation to be vanished!
These findings were then published in the Science journal which then led to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calling for an intense collaboration of deforestation. According to the scientists of the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research, this high possibility of the rainforest to die slowly in the next years to come is what they so-called as the “tipping point”.
For this determination of phenomenon, they further assumed that if this will continue, the whole resources of nature will sadly turn to savanna or desert which might result to climatic circumstances in the long run. According to a study in 2009, an increase of 4oC in temperature of the globe in 2100 will eventuate to the killing of 85% of the entire Amazonia. While if 3oC will be the amount of rise in global temperature, 75% of the rainforest will probably destroy. Recently, it was estimated that the Amazon has a temperature of 79oF due to constant humid and warm climate.
The Amazon rainforest is not just home to scenic natural attractions. It is also the home to many rare species and source of a significant amount of oxygen – the air that we breathe in. It thus need to be preserved and protected.