Into

the

AmazonBy: Mason K

Finals productYou may think you know about the Amazon Rainforest, but in this book I’ll

take you deep inside the lungs of our planet, Into the Amazon.

What is the Rainforest? The rainforest is a tropical land with tall, thickly growing, big leafed evergreen trees with high rainfall levels, between 90in. and 175in. a year. It is made up of 4 layers. Foliage or the leaves on a plant are everywhere and are extremely thick in some spots, providing protection for some animals.

The Emergent layer is the tallest layer. It has tall trees 130 to 250ft tall. The trees have a wax coating to keep them moist. Toucans, Harpy Eagles, Butterflies, Orchids, Kapok and Brazil nut trees all live in this area.

The next layer is the Canopy layer; it is the second tallest or primary layer, trees are 80ft to 130ft tall. Epiphytes, Aroids, Bromeliads, Ferns, Liverworts, Mosses, and Orchids all are found in this layer. Next is the Understory layer; it is above the forest floor, shady with small palms and young trees. Ferns, dieffenbachia, philodendrons and Leopards,

red-eyed tree frogs and Jaguars live in this area.The last layer is the Forest floor; it is the bottom or ground level of the forest. Decomposing fruit, plants and leaves make up this layer. Fungi, Ant eaters, Jaguars, Millipedes and Scorpions are found on the forest floor.

The Amazon rainforest is home to more than 50% of plant and animal species.

A Banana plant is one of the plants in the rainforest.

It has large leaves and has clusters of bananas on it. The banana plants habitat (The organisms’ natural environment) is Brazil, China, The Philippines, Ecuador, Burundi, Columbia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and India. The predators (an organism that eats all or part of another organism) of the banana plant or just the banana are Humans, monkeys, chimps, apes, toucans, and iguanas. Deforestation (The clearing of trees from a large area without replacing them) is also affecting the banana plant. The banana and banana plant can be used for Phosphorus, potassium, vitamins A and C and dried banana’s can be made into flour. Bananas are also a good source of fiber. A Cacao tree is also one of many plants in the Amazon. It has semi- pointed leaves, pods and it is an evergreen tree. It is found in central South America, East and West Indies, and West Africa. Humans, cacao harvests, and deforestation all are predators of the cacao trees. It is used to make chocolate.

Since plants don’t have mouths and hands to feed themselves, they use a process called Photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make food.Only producers use photosynthesis, because they producers instead of eating other things to get energy, they make their own energy. Examples of

producers are Orchids, Brazil nut trees, Kapok trees, and Banana or Cacao trees. There are also many more.

There are many animal species in the Amazon rainforest. There are insects, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. They are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. One bird is the Toucan. The Toucan is a medium sized bird, with black feathers. It has a large colorful bill. The Toucan lives in the canopy layer. The Toucan has one main predator; Humans. The toucan could also be eaten by the Harpy eagle, but the Harpy Eagle would only eat the Toucan if it couldn’t find a bite to eat. The Toucan eats mainly fruit, insects and bird eggs. The large bill is one of the Toucans adaptations. It is used to grab fruit on unstable branches or in hard to reach places. The Toucans scientific name is Ramphastos toco.

There are also others animals such as the Jaguar. The Jaguar is a large spotted cat. It is also pretty fast. It lives on the forest floor and can also be found relaxing/spying on animals from a tree perched in the understory layer. Its predators are humans (no animals). The Jaguar is hunted for its coat and meat. Its protection status is near threatened. The Jaguar is a carnivore. It eats fish, turtles, caimans (a small,

alligator like animal) deer, peccaries, capybaras and tapirs and probably many more. Its adaptations are that it is able to climb trees to ambush prey. The Jaguars use camouflage to hide in trees and at night to attack their unsuspecting prey.

Other than animals and plants the Amazon is home to tribes. One tribe is the Yanomami. These people are very intact with their culture or the way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs.

The Yanomami tribe is a tribe deep inside the jungle. The first contact with the out-side world was in 1929. The Yanomami live in the Amazon basin, of Brazil and Venezuela. The population in Brazil was 11,700(in 2000) and in Venezuela the population was 15,193(in 1992), but now today their total population is around 26,000 people. The land the Yanomami occupy is 192,000 km₂. The Yanomami are thought to be the most primitive, culturally intact people alive. They are a stone-age tribe; some anthropologists classify the Yanomami as NEO-INDIANS. Their culture has characteristics that date back 8000 years. The Yanomami Indians are hunters and they gather food. They also have small gardens. The Yanomami have multifamily houses that are shaped like cones or shortened cone shaped houses called yano or xapono. If Yanomami local groups don’t live in that kind of house, they live in a village with rectangular-shaped houses. The space of the forest that the Yanomami house/villages take up is a series of circles that are 5 km, 5 to 10 km and 10 to 20 km. The first circle is used by the whole community. Some of the events are small-scale female gatherings, individual fishing and in the summer, collective fishing with timber poison, or sometimes short hunting trips at dawn or dusk. “The second circle is the area of individual hunting (Rama huu) and day-to-day family food gatherings” Says http://www.socioambiental.org/e/. The third and final circle is for long hunting trips, long multifamily hunting trips and gathering expeditions. Also in the third circle are new and old swiddens: there people set up camp to cultivate and harvest the land and hunt wild game.

Another group is the Tikuna.

The Tikuna tribe in South America is a tribe located in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. They first had contact with the out-side world was in

1532. They work on different things all the time, whether it is making a dug-out canoe or fishing, hunting or building a dam. The main source of food

comes from the river and their main source of protein is fish. They build a dam from leaves, to catch fish. They go up river and spread toxic

roots/plants that stun the fish’s gills causing them to float to the surface and a woman that weaved a basket lets a man go in and scoop up the fish before the toxins wear off. Sometimes they hunt but this is very rare, because most villages only have one shotgun, rifle or weapon. In one village there is only

one shotgun and the man who uses it has only four shells. Another way tribesmen get food is by fishing from a canoe with some string, or he can

spire a fish in shallow water from up to a few feet away. If they are not doing anything else they are gathered around a fire and the story-tellers come and

tell the tribe stories about their ancestors.

Both of these tribes are indigenous. The Yanomami and Tikuna tribe are not a nomadic tribe. If they were nomads they would be a tribe that has no permanent abode but moves from place to place.

This is the land cover map of the Amazon.

This is a climate map of the Amazon.

The Amazon has mostly a tropical wet climate.

This is an example of a food web.

It shows what eats what. You have the sun, which gives light to all producers or an organism that uses sunlight directly to make food. The producers are eaten by consumers or an organism that eats another organism. Last you have Decomposers or organisms that get energy by breaking down dead organisms are decomposers.

You may ask yourself “How do people get around in the Rainforest and how do ideas travel?” Well people in the Amazon travel by canoe, roads, buildings roads, small airplanes, walking and by trading. Some things they may trade are fur, spices, and other things found in the Amazon to get some kinds of local necessities. Other than locals; it is estimated that 1,000,000 people moved to the Amazon to start a new life, but they have discovered the true reality of working for people in the Amazon because, it is a hard life style and the Brazilian government hasn’t been living up to their promises by not getting fertilizer and other items to some of the farms and ranches. Some farmers haven’t been as profitable as others and they leave and start a ranch somewhere else. This is increasing destruction. There are also many tourists. One type of tourism is ecotourism. Ecotourism is the tourism to places having unspoiled natural resources', with minimal impact to the environment.

Ecotourism people might try to help, but they may have trouble stopping bad deforestation. People are rapidly cutting down trees. The Amazon rainforest used to take up 14％ but now thanks to deforestation it only covers 8％.Every log they cut down brings about 3 or 4 logs down with it. Then when the logs are dragged out by trucks, the brush is destroyed. The logs they cut down go to manufacturing companies so that they can be made into furniture or other products, but after they cut down the trees they don’t replace them. That has a huge impact on the environment. Some also burn down the forest to create room for cattle ranches.

This is before. This is after.

It went from being a home for many, to a home for nothing; except cattle.

Now you know about the rainforest and how it is so important. With this new information, we can help protect a natural wonder, because everyday an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania is destroyed from the Amazon. It is the lungs of our earth, it produces 20％ of the world’s oxygen and when it’s gone it’s gone forever. Help protect those animals, just think where they will go if their habitats are destroyed. Help conserve and protect the Amazon and even if they have to cut down trees they should try to conserve or use resources carefully to avoid wasting them.

There are believed to be 2500 cancer fighting ingredients in the Amazon rainforest alone. Take action and protect the Amazon and Together we will save the rainforest!

I would like to give a special thanks to the following websites or informational sources.

Information

World book Holt science book

Social studies World atlas book

Social studies videos’

http://www.indian-cultures.com/Cultures/ticuna.html http://animals.nationalgeographic.com

Pictures ''http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/d/dispenza_l/web_design/rainforests_final/emergent_layer/emergent_layer.htm

http://www.all-creatures.org/hope/gw/02_Amazon_beauty.htm http://www.freewebs.com/rainforestjg/ http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com/amazon.htm http://www.carnivoraforum.com/index.cgi?

board=zoological&action=display&thread=8913 http://5finebones.blogspot.com/2009/03/great-amazon.html http://niroshabmv.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/cacao/ http://www.philippineherbalmedicine.org/banana.htm http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_jaguar.jpg http://electrictreehouse.co http://www.celsias.co.nz http://www.rpi.edu/