Amazon Rainforest

Where is the Amazon located?

What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in partnership with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system. An ecosystem is a unique environment where every living thing is interdependent, and one of the most complex and most interesting ecosystems in the world can be found in the rainforest.

Rainforests in the world:

[pic 1]

Amazon rainforest:

[pic 2][pic 3][pic 4]

Where are tropical rainforests?

Tropical rainforests are located in a band around the equator, mostly in the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. There are rainforests in South and Central America, Africa, Oceania (the islands around Australia), and Asia. Tropical rainforests cover only about 7% of the Earth's surface. The largest rainforests are in the Amazon River Basin (South America), the Congo River Basin (western Africa), and throughout much of Southeast Asia. Smaller rainforests are located in Central America, Madagascar, Australia and nearby islands, India, and other locations in the tropics. There are only two seasons in a tropical rainforest, the wet season and the dry season. Temperate rainforests are found along the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada (from northern California to Alaska), in New Zealand, Tasmania, Chile, Ireland, Scotland and Norway. They cover less area than tropical rainforests. The Olympic rain forest (located on the Olympic peninsula in the state of Washington, United States of America) is a temperate rain forest near the Pacific Ocean.

What is the climate of the Amazon?

Climate graph for Brazil:

[pic 5]

What is the climate like in Amazon?

The Amazon Rainforest lies in the Equatorial region of South Africa and has a Tropical Rainforest climate with little variation in the yearly climate. Daily rainfall is common due to rising, moist air & daytime heating. The forest of Amazon, known as Amazonia is called the 'lungs of the earth' as it produces 20% of the total oxygen in the world. It is the largest ecosystem on earth. The climate in the Amazon rainforest is like that of any other typical tropical rainforest. It is hot and humid. There aren't many seasonal changes in the climate and the temperature too remains the same for pretty much of the year. In fact the difference between the day and night temperatures is greater than the difference between any two seasons. The weather remains the same all year long.