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South America Visual Guide
3
Vincent Lu
Big History
Ms. Hess
Nov 3, 2019
South America Visual Guide
Intro of South America
Intro of South America
- It was named after Amerigo Vespucci discovering this continent.
- It is made up by South America Plate.
- It took the form as it has today 140 millions years ago.
- The subduction of the Nazca Plate forming the Andes mountains, which interact with the weather paterns.
- Because all the continents are changing their position everyday, South America arrives at the location just today.
Andes Mountains
The Longest Continental Mountain Range in the World
Andes Mountains
Atacama Desert
One of the World's Driest Place
Atacama Desert
Puya Raimondii
The Largest Herb in the World
Puya Raimondii
Intro of Amazon River
The Largest Watershed in the World
Every second, the Amazon River empties 209,000 cubic meters of freshwater into the Atlantic Ocean.
This topical biome has as many as 100 different tree species on a single acre.
Intro of Amazon River
About half of the rain forest of the entire planet is here.
The Amazon River basin has an area of almost 7 million square kilometers.
More than 2 million species of insects including hundreds of spiders and butterflies, and thousands of birds are native to this region.
Details & Peculiarity
Details & Peculiarity
The Amazon River is the life force of the equally vast Amazon Rain Forest, which makes up about half of the rain forest of the entire planet. So it contains lots of unique and fascinating animals.
- Piranha
- Capybara
- Jaguar
- Giant Otter
- Giant anteater
- Golden Lion Tamarin
- Black Caiman
- Poison Dart Frog
- Keel-Billed Toucan
- Three-Toed Sloth
- The Amazon river took its present shape approximately 2.4 million years ago in the Early Pleistocene.
- The first European explored the Amazon, in 1541, was the Spanish Soldier Francisco de Orellana, who gave the river its name after reporting pitched battles with tribes of female warriors, whom he likened to the Amazons of Greek mythology.
Piranha
They actually do not like to attack humans.
Capybara
It is the world's largest rodent.
(Weighing up to 150 pounds)
Jaguar
The third-largest big cat after the lion and tiger.
Giant Otter
It is the largest member of the mustelid family.
(Also known as "Water Jaguar" or "River Wolf")
Giant Anteater
Known as the ant bear, the Giant Anteater is equipped with a comically long snout.
Golden Lion Tamarin
It only weighs a couple of pounds.
Black Caiman
The largest and most dangerous reptile of the Amazon River basin.
Poison Dart Frog
It does not manufacture their own venom but collect it from the ants, mites and other insects that constitute their diet.
Keel-Billed Toucan
One of the most comical-looking animals of the Amazon River basin.
Three-Toed Sloth
It only has three toes.
Its average speed has been clocked at about a tenth of a mile per hour.
Current situation & Future
Current Situation & Future
- Though Amazon's rainforest has existed for 50 million years, it is now under threat from human activities, including devastating fires set to clear acreage for ranching and agriculture as well as the mining of oil and gas, copper, iron and gold.
- The rainforest contributes about $8.2 billion a year to Brazil's economy from products including rubber and timber.
- In recent months, the Amazon region has been hit by thousands of fires that collectively have cleared more than 7,400 square miles of rainforest in Brazil. Scientists say the recent spate of fires reverses a long trend toward fewer fires and less deforestation.
Fires break out every year in the Amazon rainforest, often accidentally during the dry months of September and October. But satellite photographs show that many fires in the Brazilian portion of the rainforest were set deliberately to clear land.
Deforestation
Deforestation
The rainforest brings rainfall across South America, and much of the continent would become hotter and drier if large portions of it were to be destroyed. The shift to a more arid climate would devastate the vast agricultural areas farther south; parts of South America would become effectively unlivable.
The decline of the Amazon rainforest could also affect the global climate
Carbon
The Amazon is an incredibly important ecosystem for the planet because it stores carbon and it can also function as a carbon sink. Aside from the Ocean, there is no other place on Earth that might be as important for curtailing carbon emissions.
If the burning of vegetation released all that carbon into the atmosphere, efforts to limit climate change by cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles and industrial processes would become pointless.
Carbon
Species
This is the richest place on our planet, from the billions of years of evolution of life before humans were around. It’s one of the greatest libraries of nature on Earth.
All of these species and thousands more could be lost if the Amazon rainforest were to collapse.
Species
Conclusion
The Amazon River along with the Amazon Rainforest are valuable treasures in human civilization.
We should do our best to protect it.
Conclusion
What Should We Do
What Should We Do
- Creating larger conservation areas and indigenous reserves.
- Adapting indigenous Agroforestry techniques to use mixed cultures where crops are grown.
- Restoring sustainable timber plantations of areas which have already been destroyed.
- Increasing extractive reserves and development of markets for products that are extracted from the forest.
- Using more oligarchic forests which are quite abundant in some parts of Amazonia.
- Developing agriculture only in the few places where the soils are suitable, such as in the flood plains of white water rivers.