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Earth’s life support systems - Amazon Rainforest - Coggle Diagram
Earth’s life support systems - Amazon Rainforest
Location
South America
Across 9 countries - Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Suriname, Colombia, Bolivia, Guyana and French Guiana
The water cycle
High average rainfall >2000m, evenly distributed through the year
High rates of evapotranspiration
Rapid run-off due to high and intense rainfall and well-drained soils
Tress play a vital role in interception, storage and transpiration of water
The carbon cycle
High levels of net primary productivity = high biomass in tropical rainforests = carbon storage is high in trees
Exchanges of carbon between the atmosphere biosphere, and soil are rapid
Rates of carbon fixation through photosynthesis is high
Rapid breakdown and recycling of organic matter
Physical factors affecting flows and stores of the water cycle
Temperatures: high temperatures = high rates of evapotranspiration, convection = high humidity and intense rainfall
Geology: there are large areas of impermeable rock in the Amazon
Relief: most of the Amazon Basin has gentle relief, most water movement is by overland flow and through flow
Physical factors affecting flows and stores of the carbon cycle
Temperatures: high temperatures = rapid vegetation growth and large biomass of amazon (stores 100 billion tonnes of carbon )
Vegetation: 60% of rainforest carbon is stored in the above-ground biomass of trees
Organic matter: leaf litter and dead organic matter on the soil surface decompose as minerals are taken up by root systems and CO2 is emitted and returned to the atmosphere
Impacts of flows and stores in a drainage basin
Deforestation = flooding in some areas
Deforestation = reduced water shortage in trees, soils, rocks and the atmosphere
Fewer trees = less evapotranspiration and precipitation
Run-off increases
The main impact of deforestation on the water cycle
Can change climate at a local and regional scale: reduced humidity, cloud formation and precipitation, reduced interception
Example of the water cycle being affected by human factors
April 2014 Madeira river - largest tributary
Impacts of human activity on carbon flows, soils and nutrient stores
Deforestation exhausts in carbon biomass store
Deforestation reduces the input of organic matter to the soil
Deforestation removes most nutrients from the ecosystem
Fewer decomposer organisms = flow of carbon from soil to the atmosphere is reduced
Strategies implemented to manage the tropical rainforest
Protection: e.g. Amazon Regional Protected Areas
Projects: reforestation projects e.g. Patrica project in Rondonia aims to develop 1000km2 of commercial timber plantation on deforested government land
Improved agricultural techniques: diversification, rotational cropping and combining livestock and arable farming