Amazônia | Biomas do Brasil | Ep.11

In 1542 a Spanish troop come to this place after gold, after the so called "Eldorado Kingdom". Bear in mind that the same Spanish conquistadors had already destroyed the Inca and the Aztec in other countries. As they arrived, they sailed their ships with easy and suddenly the came across an indigenous tribe formed only by women.

Those women kicked their butts and the Spanish ended up having to go home, they told stories back in Spain and named those native women "Amazon" after those great mythological warriors. Because of that fact, a large river that passed through the region was baptized "Amazon River", which later on gave name to the biome we will study today. So put some blood in that eye because today there's the magnificent, the great Amazon for you.

♪ In order to record this class about the Amazon, I left Florianopolis and went to the city of Altazes, located 62 miles from Manaus. I traveled a whole distance of 2. 8 thousand miles to finally be able to gaze upon this mankind heritage.

♫ The Amazon is the biggest Brazilian biome and spreads throughout 9 countries: Brazil, Peru, Guiana, French Guiana, Suriname, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Whereas 60% of it, is located in the Brazilian territory, where it goes through Maranhao, Mato Grosso and occupies all states of the north region. Almost 50% of Brazil is Amazon - if we consider the Legal Amazon, its area extends into 61% of Brazilian lands.

That's because the Legal Amazon is a political demarcation that includes 9 Brazilian states belonging to the Amazon basin. States that share the same economic, political and social challenges. Besides the Amazon biome, the Legal Amazon area covers sections of Cerrado and Pantanal as well, in other words, is a social-political division, not a natural division.

The truth of the matter is that the Legal Amazon brought more damage than advancement for this region, indeed, only big corporations benefited from it. On behalf of this so called "advancement", they caused a huge environmental damage, as if the nature that existed here had no value whatsoever. When it comes to social and economical development for the population that that lives in this region, it never happened - just so you know, if the Amazon was a country, it would be the seventh larger country of the world.

This is the biggest tropical rainforest of the planet, 50% of all tropical rainforests that exist on planet Earth, are here in the Amazon. Although it's a wide region, only 23 million people live here, in other words, it's the less populated region of Brazil. That's also where we find the biggest number of native tribes in our country.

About a hundred tribes still live in isolation here. ♫ Time to talk about the climate of the Amazon, which is cut by the Equator Line, so the climate here is mostly equatorial, which means that it's extremely hot and moist - you're able to notice how sweaty I am. Why?

Because inside the forest, the climate is so moist, so moist, that my sweat won't evaporate, so I'm sweating my ass off to keep up this videoclass here for you, and because it's located right on the Equator Line, a lot of sunlight incides onto this forest, which keeps the high temperatures - the average temperature of the Amazon biome is around 25 degree Celsius. The Amazon forest is called "rainforest" in English language, because it pours with rain in here. And it's torrential rain, aggressive stuff - just so you know, the rainfall index of the Amazon, the average rainfall index is 2,300 millimeters of rain per year.

But there are parts in the Amazon, where this index can reach up to 3,600 millimeters, so it's really a lot of rain. Another very interesting detail is that we have a rainy period and a drought period, but when it comes to Amazon, "drought" doesn't mean it stops raining, it keeps raining, but it rains 3 times less than during the rainy period. Why does it rain so much in the Amazon?

Of course you have the presence of several rivers and their water evaporates and ends up building up rain. But there's another detail that builds up to a lot of rain, which is precisely the vegetal perspiration, trees such as this one, plants perspire, they open structures in their leaves called stomata and they release water through them - this water comes out in a gaseous state, goes up, condenses and comes back down as rain. So Amazon plants have a very big contribution to the formation of the rain that falls not only here, but the rain that's distributed throughout Brazil.

But how does the rain formed in the Amazon spread throughout Brazil? A portion of the air masses loaded with water vapor, which are formed by evapotranspiration of plants and evaporation of rivers, deslocate throughout almost all South America, a phenomenom that's known as "flying rivers" and this process occurs precisely because the forest gives away half the rain water it received, back to the atmosphere. These clouds gather up with rain clouds that come from the Atlantic Ocean, and they move from east to west until they hit the Andes Mountain Range - as long as those are very tall mountains, those clouds can't cross over and end up moving south, distributing rain throughout the whole continent.

An interesting detail is that part of the high moisture we have here in the Amazon, happens due to the presence of rivers in this region, giant rivers that form the largest hydrographic basin of the world, which is the Amazon Basin. Remember when you had to memorize the rivers of the Amazon Basin in school? That was traumatic indeed, I still didn't memorize all their names to this day.

But these are very important rivers - just so you know, 20% of all the world's fresh water is located here in the Amazon Basin, 80% of all Brazil's fresh water is also here - this hydrographic basin is so big that it occupies 5% of planet Earth. We have various rivers forming the Amazon Basin, such as the <i>Xingu</i> river, <i>Solimoes, Rio Negro, Jurua</i> and the biggest of all, which is the Amazon River - another interesting detail, is that their colors may vary, it can be white, which is actually a muddy water, it can be black or it can be clear, which is supposed to be a more translucent water. The color of this water will have direct influence over the type of vegetation found next to these rivers.

Of course when we talk about Amazon rivers we have to mention one of the biggest spectacles of nature, which is the meeting of the Rio Negro and Solimoes waters, thus forming the Amazon. Notice how besides having different colors, they don't mix - as if there's a wall between them. This phenomenom basically occurs due to the differences in the chemical composition, density, temperature and speed of each river.

The Solimoes' waters are colder and denser than the Negro's waters, the Solimoes is a little faster than the Negro, which is more acidic than the Solimoes, which has much more sediments in the water than the Negro, so all that put together ends up causing this educational process - I'd like to highlight and register that I almost lost the Jubi-drone due to the wind, while I'm doing these images for you. Another interesting detail is that the level of the Amazon rivers rise too much during the rainy season, sometimes over 40 feet. The Amazon terrain is relatively flat, so the process of draining the rivers to the oceans is slow, which contributes even more to the high level of the rivers here, besides, this phenomenon has a huge influence over the type of vegetation we find in this biome.

As I walk inside the forest, I'm being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and suddenly I found a little piece of ground to explain the characteristics of the soil here in the Amazon: First off, it's a deep soil and when it comes to its composition, we say it's arenaceous-argillaceous. What's arenaceous-argillaceous? It's got sand and clay at same time, it's got sand and clay at same time.

If you notice here, we have some parts that are lighter and other parts that are darker, the lighter part is arenaceous and the darker part is argillaceous. - I'm gonna dig here, it's too compact here, it's a bit hard to grab it! But you can see how there's sand and clay at same time.

And the most important, is that this is a soil heavily poor in nutrients, so you may ask <i>- "But Jubijubao, how come the forest can</i> <i>be formed in a soil that has no nutrients? "</i> The secret of the Amazon is right here, in these remains of leaves, dead animals, animal waste, urine, feces, all of it here - we call these leaves litterfall - everything is being decomposed by fungi and bacteria. This is what is going to give nutrients to the soil, and later on they are absorbed by the roots of the plants.

We call this process of decomposition, these dead leaves and all, humus. Bear in mind that humus is the fertilizer of the forest. An interesting detail is that there are some regions here in the Amazon in which the soil is fertile, so the scientists went to these regions to try to understand why that piece of land has fertility, is a productive soil.

As you dig this soil, you will find remains of shells, garbage, ceramic, which means that the native tribe that used to live there for a long time, was responsible for fertilizing that soil. That's an information very important, because it shows how the natives from ancient times had an advanced knowledge of agriculture and an advanced knowlege on how to make a soil poor in nutrients to become fertile. As long as the Amazon is too hot and too moist, this process of humus formation is very fast, the process of decomposition of this organic matter is extremely accelerated, of course high temperature, lots of water - chemical reactions quickly happen, so there's nutrient being thrown in this soil all the time, so the plants are able to absorb them.

Another detail is that the plants associate their roots with fungi - an association we call mycorrhiza. This increases the absorption of nutrients - we have to bring up a "philosophy of life" here for the following reason: This humus is located on the surface of the soil. The nutrients that will infiltrate the soil, that will be directed to the roots of the plants, come from here.

If I deforest this region, this will be exposed, so when the rain hit this place, it will wash this soil and carry away this top layer, which is responsible for giving nutrients to the soil - a phenomenon we call leaching. Without this source of nutrients, the Amazon soil becomes heavily poor because it's already naturally poor, then you hardly can make a new forest to establish here. Guys, as I walk around here, take a look at what I just found - take a look at the size of this tree, this is a cedar, check this out!

See how small I am compared with this tree - and I'm big! It should be about 130 feet tall, and the most interesting is that it's got these big roots that work as supportive pods in the soil of the Amazon, but the coolest part is that it highlights the issue of soil nutrients being on the surface, on this layer we call humus, because this tree right here produces micro-roots that spread precisely throughout the surface of the soil. Because the nutrients are on the surface, not deep down.

There's no point building roots deep down the ground to retrieve nutrients because the nutrient is on the surface, so the tree builds this ramification. There should be a ton of nutrients because look at the size of this tree - I believe it's supposed to be at least 400 years old. I'd like to throw a "philosophy of life" at you now, let's go: Here we have these vegetal remains that form the litterfall, then you have the action of fungi and bacteria that will form the humus, which has nutrients and these nutrients will make the plant to grow, this plant in turn perspires and this perspiration is responsible for most of the rain that happens here in the Amazon, and these rains allow the forest to develop, making possible for animals to live here.

In other words, if I take the fungi and bacteria away from the soil, I ask you - Will this and other plants of the forest still have nutrients? They won't, I no longer have plants. Do I have rain?

I no longer have any! So I have no forest either. Notice how the nature works as a system.

The species don't live by themselves, they are not alone in here. One depends on another, so if I take one single gear away from this gearbox, from this system, the whole system collapses, hence the risk of extinction of a species, because when you take away an actor, this will somehow cause the collapse of this ecosystem. So heat, moisture, humus on the soil as source of nutrients, will allow a very high vegetal biodiversity here in the Amazon.

When it comes to angiosperms, we have over 20 thousand species, if we pick all groups of registered plants in the Amazon today, we have about 40 thousand species, it's the biggest vegetal biodiversity of the planet. As you have noticed, the rivers of the Amazon have a flooding cycle and then an ebb cycle. Of course the behavior of these rivers will influence the types of landscapes we will find in this biome.

So we divide it in 4 main categories - it doesn't mean that there aren't others, surely there are, but these are the main four: <i>Terra Firme</i> Forest; Varzea, Igapo and Manguezal. Here we have a <i>terra firme</i> forest, which is the Amazon as you know it, 80% of this biome is just like this. As long as these forests are located in higher regions, they aren't troubled by floodings, so you are able to have the formation of a denser vegetation, with predominance of arboreous plants, in other words, with trees.

There's a lot of trees in here, trees that can reach 65, 80, 100 feet, whose top will form the forest rootop, which we call canopy. So the taller trees have tops that build this layer, which is the upper layer called canopy. This layer will filter the light entering in this forest, which means that the plants that grow beneath this canopy, that form other vegetal layers, in other words, other levels of vegetation, they need adaptations in order to survive in a dark environment.

You can see I'm beneath the forest, imagine I'm a plant! See the amount of light that's reaching me - it's too little! So I need to have some mechanism to get this flimsy light coming from above, due to the presence of the canopy - an interesting detail, is that down here we have shrubs that are smaller trees and we also have herbaceous vegetation, which are these smaller plants you see here.

♫ To be a broadleaf plant is one of these adaptations, in other words, to have wide leaves, such as this one here - from the moment you have very broad leaves, you are able to catch much more luminous energy that gradually comes from above, thus you are able to make photosynthesis. Take a look at the leaf structure of this palm tree! Each one of this streak is a leaf, but look at the size of the structure so it's able to capture luminous energy to make photosynthesis and to be able to grow, and surely these plants also need.

. . - I just ate a mosquito here, but come with me!

It's the 10th bug I eat - another adaptation is that these plants have to be ready for the moist environment, there's a lot of moist here and this moist could rot your tissue. One of these adaptations is that these plants often keep the stomata they have on their leaves open the whole time - stomata are tiny buttons that open and close so the plant is able to make gaseous exchange, but when it opens the plant loses water, but there's so much water here, so much water, that it can afford to leave their stomata open. We call these plants, hydrophytic plants, because they like a moist environment.

♪ Here inside the <i>terra firma</i> forest, or <i>"ilea"</i>, wich means "wild forest", as the foreigners liked to call the Amazon, we find many epiphyte plants, which are those plants that live over other plants without being parasitic - for instance, here we have the presence of some moss, the infamous bryophyte, which you have studied in school, we also have orchids, bromeliads, and we have these plants here, which are known as liana vines, they are more ligneous plants - it's hard! It looks like a trunk, but it's a mini-trunk and they stay on top, they climb the other trees, all ot it, let me see - come with me cameraman! This is liana, liana, liana, all of it.

They are climbing this tree here. Guys, here we have an example of liana, which is the water vine, so this is a liana, a climbing vine that has this reddish aspect and whenever you are lost in the Amazon and thirsty, this is a great source of water because there's plenty of drinking water inside - I'm gonna try to cut it! A heads up: You grab your machete, you shoud have one, you always need to have a machete with you!

Then you hit here, hit it again here, down here! And you grab the thing! It's supposed to have water inside - now you flip it!

It's fresh water from the forest to you! Take a look at this awesome tree I just found, which is known here as <i>samauma</i> tree and this is only its root, a tabular type of root that gives stability for a tree this big - this one here should be almost 130 feet tall and it's known as "indian phone", because this is a tree that stores water inside, so if you grab a stick and hit the tabular root, which they call <i>sapopemba</i>, it makes a noise and you are able to communicate inside the forest. Of course there should be a <i>samauma</i> tree where the other person stands.

<i>- "Hi, how are you? "</i> And the other indian replies - <i>"I'm fine, thanks! "</i> Another detail is that the flowers of this tree are white, white because they are pollinated by bats and as long as bats are nocturnal animals, you don't need to invest energy in the color of your flower, so usually when a plant has white flowers, it's pollinated by a nocturnal animal.

♪ Take a look at what I just found here, a rubber tree - the latex produced by this tree makes possible to manufacture rubber. I don't know if you know, but at the end of the 19th century, beginning of 20th century, the Amazon used to be the biggest producer of rubber of the world. Of course that brought huge economical prosperity for this region, but along came a smart Englishman, stole some seeds of rubber tree and took them away to Malaysia, where they were seeded side by side, in a safe region.

It turns out that after a while Malaysia started to produce more and cheaper rubber than Brazil. As long as the guy had to get into the forest to obtain this latex, imagine the Amazon by the end of the 19th century, beginning of 20th century, jaguars and snakes everywhere, so all of it made the Brazilian rubber more expensive and Malaysia ended up killing the Brazilian rubber cycle - it was gone! And they started to sell a lot more rubber than here.

It's important to highlight that the rate of photosynthesis made by plants here in the Amazon, is almost the same as their repiration rate, in other words, all the oxygen produced by the plants, will be consumed during cellular respiration, which puts an end to that myth that the Amazon is the "lung of the world", it's nobody's lung. This plant here makes photosynthesis to produce sugar, to produce carbohydrate, but it needs to break this carbohydrate, and it does that through cellular respiration, utilizing their mitochondria and oxygen. I want you to take notice of this tree that's right behind me, this tree is 20 feet tall and if you look at it, it's almost entirely underwater, this is the top and I'm in a boat.

This is a varzea area, a place that's flooded when the river level rises and after it recedes, it becomes a dry forest again. The varzea is a place where the river has a lot of sediments, therefore it's got a lot of nutrients as well, which allow the development of bigger plants such as this tree here. An interesting detail is that some trees present in the varzea during the flooding season, lose their leaves and enter some sort of dormancy, when the river recedes they start to produce leaves, flowers and fruits again.

♫ Here we have the igapo, which is a region that's usually flooded permanently and it's easier to be found in dark waters such as the <i>Rio Negro</i>. These rivers are more acidic and their water has less nutrients than the lighter rivers, so it's harder for the vegetal species to be able to develop in this place - usually when you are in the igapo, you find shrubs that are small trees, you also find some species of moss and as you see down here, there's a lot of aquatic plants. ♫ There's a very cool ecological relation in the igapo, between this palm tree here, known as <i>maraja</i> - ridden with thorns, by the way.

I'm almost dying here but I'm gonna tell you! This palm tree, which is flooded, full of water, it's an <i>igapo</i> - but it's able to produce a fruit and a tiny seed that are quite appreciated by the fish that live here. As they eat these fruits, they help to increase the population of this plant here, so it feeds the fish which in turn helps to spread its seeds throughout the whole igapo here in the Amazon.

Check this out! There's so much water in this igapo, that I'm holding a leaf of <i>maraja</i> tree, and this plant is right on the top, it's probably 20 feet long and the water is almost covering it entirely, there's only a couple of leaves sticking out everything else is underwater. ♪ We can't forget that the manguezal of the Amazon coast, represents 70% of all Brazilian manguezal.

Here we find the largest continuous manguezal strip of the world, which harbors several species of crustaceans, fish, molluscs and marine birds - the river waters mix with the sea water. Of course the plants and animals that live here need to be adapted to an environment with brackish water. Bear in mind that: <i>varzea</i> and <i>igapo</i> are vegetations influenced by river waters, by fresh waters, while the manguezal is influenced by brackish waters, in other words, a mix of river water and sea water.

The igapo is a vegetation permanently flooded, while the varzea is eventually flooded . As you can see, there's not only one type of landscape in the Amazon, but many: <i>terra firme, igapo, manguezal</i> and <i>varzea</i>, that's why some authors defend the idea that the Amazon is not a single biome, rather, it's a set of various biomes that receive the name of Amazon Domain. ♪ Take a look at what we have here, the wonderful victoria water-lilies, aquatic plants that are the symbol of the Amazon.

They have a very interesting adaptation, which are stomata located on top of the leaf - of course it's because the bottom side stays underwater so these stomata couldn't be there. <i>"- Ah but Jubijubao, I don't remember what stomata is. "</i> Stomata are those buttons that open and close, so the plant is able to make gaseous exchanges, they are located on the upper side of the victoria's leaf and many times they let these stomata open the whole time, of course it's gonna lose a lot of water.

But in a place like this, plentiful of water, that's not an issue. Another interesting detail is that there's bunch of thorns underneath the victoria water-lily, a protection against animals that feed off leaves. Besides, these animals will be the great subject of our next video about the Amazon.

All in all, needless to say that it was a great treat to be here with you, a big hug, bye! <b>Subs: <i>msfreelancer </i></b> http://tinyurl.