Amazon Rainforest series - part 2: eco system and food chains

Welcome back to our Amazon mini-series!

Today, we're going to talk about the eco system and food chains of the Amazon Rainforest.

The eco system is very complex. If you read our last Amazon post you will know the great number of species that call the Amazon Rainforest home.

The Amazon Rainforest is a very accurate name for it. Massive amounts of rain fall on the forest every year. Most of that rain is blown in from the Atlantic Ocean. The rest comes from evaporation. The rainforest is known to be full of life. It provides one of the last refuges for jaguars, harpy eagles and pink river dolphins. But the rainforest is home to many more animals than that. Everyone has heard of poison dart frogs right?

In fact, the Amazon Rainforest contains 1 in 10 of all known animal species on Earth! That's a lot of animals!

The Amazon is home to over 1 000 species of birds, from hummingbirds to eagles. Macaws are probably the most well known bird species in the Amazon. They live in flocks of 10-30 and mate for life. Some types can even mimic humans - just like parrots!

The main predators are jaguars and harpy eagles. But in the end, every animal depends on plants. The food webs of the Amazon Rainforest are vital for its ecosystem. Every single animal plays an important role. For instance:

If squirrel monkeys didn't exist, the tree frog population would get to big.

If the tree frog population got to big, they would eat all the insects.

If all the insects were eaten by tree frogs, then lizards and toucans will dwindle in number and could starve.

That would affect the animals that prey on lizards and toucans.

So, if the squirrel monkeys didn't exist, then tree frogs, insects, lizards, toucans, ocelots, jaguars and harpy eagles would all be affected.

Of course, one species not existing, doesn't automatically mean in the destruction of the entire ecosystem, but that just proves how delicate they really are. However, food webs are designed to work - not to break. As long as no influence comes from the outside, there should never be a problem. The problem is, we're that influence from the outside. And we're not a good one.

Next time we'll go into more details about what is threatening this unique ecosystem. And we'll look at how we can help to stop the terrifying destruction currently underway.

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/amazon-rainforest/
https://sciencing.com/ecosystem-amazon-rainforest-6495612.html
https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/amazon/about_the_amazon/ecosystems_amazon/

Images:
Trees lining the river: This image, owned by Anna and Michal (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Poison dart frog: This image, owned by Paul Balfe (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Macaws: This image, owned by Wayne S. Grazio (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Comments

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

Hello. On the 12th of August it was International Elephant Day, so we decided that this week's post should be about elephants. Elephants are the largest living land mammals. There are three types of elephant; the African bush elephant; the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have larger ears, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants use their trunks to breath, bring food and drink to their mouths and to grasp objects. Elephants' legs are like pillars. They carry the Elephant's massive weight. African bush elephants weigh 6000kg, Asian elephants weigh 4000kg and African forest elephants weigh 2700kg. Basically, they are very heavy.Elephants eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Elephants can live up to 70 years old in the wild. They communicate by sight, touch and smell. Sadly, these wonderful mammals are in danger. African elephants are listed as vulne...

10 Animals on the Edge of Extinction No. 10- The Javan Rhino

The Javan rhino is listed as the 1st animal on WWF’s list of the 10 world’s most endangered animals, and I for my part, had never heard of it! If you hadn’t either, we’re changing that now. A bit about the rhino’s lifestyle The Javan rhinos are now exclusively found on the island of Java in Indonesia, but were once found in vast regions of northeast india and Southeast Asia. They have a dark grey colour which looks almost black when wet, and their (often pink) skin folds look a bit like plated armor. Both males and females have lower incisors which resemble tusks that they use to fight. Males have one relatively short horn of about 25 cm (10 inches). Javan Rhinos live in tropical forests, marshy areas and in the thick bush. They are mainly browsers and eat over 100 plants species they find in the forest, weigh between 900 and 2300 kg (1984-5071 pounds) and are between 3 and 3.2 meters (10- 10.5 feet) long. How endangered are we talking? Javan rhinos are the most ...

Announcement: Factfile

This image is owned by a blog editor.

Ozone layer

Hi everyone, What even is ozone? And the ozone layer? Where does the hole in the ozone layer come from and what does it mean? Is it dangerous? What can be done? Often the ozone-talk can be complicated and confusing, keeping an overview is hard and understanding all the problems always difficult. Let us break it down a bit for you: What is the ozone layer? We'll start with the basics: The ozone layer is part of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere, between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface and made up of protective gases. One of these protective gases is ozone. There is not much ozone in the atmosphere, only 0.3 molecule of ozone per 1 million molecules of air. This is because ozone is chemically unstable and only forms when ultra violet radiation (UV light) hits oxygen and breaks the bonds between the atoms. It fact it is so unstable that even when it has formed, it breaks down again relatively quickly. This leads to ozone turning back ...

Linking climate change and inequality - 'The Great Carbon Divide'

Hey everyone, Have you heard of 'The great carbon divide‘? It is often referred to as the 'carbon footprint gap' or the 'emissions imbalance‘, and produces frightening numbers. The great carbon divide describes the huge gap between the amount of carbon dioxide the rich versus the poor emit, and these numbers shocked even us. What does this mean? There have been many different studies, and all of them show terrifying results. One study from the Guardian and Oxfam, reports that the richest 1% of the world's population emit more carbon than the poorest 66%. The richest 1% consist of 77 million people, which may seem like a lot at first, but the poorest 66% refers to over 5 billion people! Africa, which is home to 17% of the world's population, only causes 4% of the world's emissions. This top 1% emitted 16% of global CO2 emissions in 2019, that's 5.9 billion tonnes of CO2. Modelling suggests that it would take someone who isn't in the top 1% about 150...

Ways to help make your household environmentally friendly

We have told you a bit about the problems that the environment is facing in previous posts but we haven’t told you how to help the environment around the house. You don’t even need a garden to make a difference! Ways to help stop global warming Tip 1: Turn the lights off when you leave a room. Tip 2: Walk or cycle on short journeys. Tip 3: Don’t have the windows open and the heaters on at the same time. Tip 4: Never leave your engine running Tip 5: If you can, buy an electric car as these produce less Co2. Ways to help stop plastic pollution Tip 1: Buy a water bottle. It seems simple but every year the UK uses an estimated 13 billion plastic bottles. Tip 2: Use a bar of soap and a bar of shampoo instead of shower gel and bottled shampoo. Some say soap can dry your skin out but if you do your research you can find plastic-free high-quality soap, perhaps at a price but it depends on where you get it from. Tip 3: Make...

Green World

Search This Blog