Weather and Environment Impacts in Brazil
Manaus is a remote town located in a rainforest, so obviously there is a large influence by the weather on the environment around Manaus. Yearly it receives about 84 inches of rainfallinches of rainfall leading to the first environmental impact of the weather: flooding. Manaus is located near the junction of two major rivers, the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes, which combine slightly to the east of Manaus to from the Amazon river. The land is relatively flat, and therefore serves as a flood basin for the rivers. The average yearly fall of the river may be around 33 feet (1). The flooding is a risk to humans in that it may threaten the city and homes, but there is also important ecological benefits that stem from the inundations. The flooding of riverside forest provides important habitat for fish, particularly juveniles which can use the tree’s root structure to avoid predation (1). A potentially more controversial result of the flooding is that fields which are inundated are an important source of atmospheric methane, as well as good nursery grounds (1) Methane is a greenhouse gas, which may lead some individuals to call for flood control of the plains in an effort to limit greenhouse gas emission in Brazil. There is a dam built up river of Manaus, but there have been problems with Amazonian dams. Because of the rainforest large amounts of plant detritus ends up in the rivers, where it gets caught behind the dams and causes sedimentation, similar to silts in American rivers (2). Unlike north American sedimentation ho wever, the climate in Brazil allows for rapid breakdown of the plant detritus, acidifying the water and releasing large amounts of Methane into the air. The dams reservo...
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... become. Fires also put particulate mater into the air, which is classified as a pollutant.
References
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Wright, David, Heather LaRocca, and Grant DeJongh. "Global Problems." The Amazonian Rainforest: Forest to Farmland? The University of Michigan, 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Tropical rainforests are an extremely unique and diverse ecosystem that are located around the earth’s equator. They once covered roughly 7% of the world, but due to human encroachment that has dwindled to just 2%. It is a highly moisture rich environment that typically receives anywhere between 60 and 400 inches of rainfall annually and average humidity ranges from 70 to 90%. A high average year round temperature, coupled with the moisture rich environment, creates an ecosystem that allows for a level of biodiversity seen nowhere else on the planet. This also results in a specific type of layering design that allows the system to survive and recycle its nutrients.
Fires kill plants and trees leaving wildlife without homes and food. Large fires cause lots of smoke and air pollution.
Due to the limited scope of this paper only some of the environmental issues along the Rio Grande River will be identified specifically, rapid population growth, growth of industries, air pollution, grand and surface water quality, ecosystems, deforestation, and the Rio Grande water quality.
The Amazon Rain Forest Is in Danger of Being Destroyed" by Devadas Vittal. Rain Forests. HaiSong Harvey, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2002. Reprinted from Devadas Vittal, Introduction: What Is the Amazon Rainforest? Internet: http://www.homepages.go.com/homepages/d/v/i/dvittal/amazon/intro.html, November 1999, by permission of the author. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010021212&mode=view
One example of the hydrologic cycle is of the rainforest in the Republic of Pan...
Philip, M., & William F. 2004, ‘Tropical Deforestation and Greenhouse-gas Emissions’, Ecological Applications, (no publication information), Volume 14, Issue 4, pp. 982–986, viewed 23 April 2010,
Using other dam projects in Brazil as case studies, there are certain predictions made or scenarios created regarding some environmental impacts. The construction of the dam creates a reservoir which allows requires certain amounts of land to be flooded. This leads to loss of land, loss of biodiversity and deforestation. Furthermore, the construction of the reservoir will affect the water quality because residue waste from the construction can settle into the water (Sousa Júnior and Reid 2010). One of the major potential environmental impacts is the drying of a 100 km stretch of the Xingu River due to the two large canals that need to be constructed This would affect any aquatic organism living in the river through depletion throwing the ecosystem off balance. Even though the most recent proposal of the Belo Monte Dam, indicates that the flooded area will be smaller than before, environmentalists and other critics are concerned that this will lead to the construction of other smaller dams (Bratman 2014). This would require more construction materials and possibly lead to more deforestation. Although, the total deforestation percentage would be around 0.04% according to the proposal proposed by Norte Energia, the Amazon Rain Forest holds the most biodiversity and even a small amount can erase hundreds or organisms (Bratman
(2010, Jan 26). Deforestation Affects Amazon Rainforest Climate. Retrieved from www.mongabay.com: http://www.mongabay.com/external/Deforestation_Affects_Climate.htm. unknown. The symphony of the symphony.
Tropical rainforest have lots of rain because it is very hot and wet due to its location along the equator. That means that there is more direct solar radiation hitting the land and sea there than anywhere else. They release moisture into the atmosphere which returns to the ground as rain. It rains more than ninety days a year in tropical rainforests and the strong sun usually shines between the storms. The water cycle repeats often along the equator. The main plants in this biome are trees. Tropical rainforests store water like a huge sponge. In fact, it’s believed that the Amazonian forests alone store over half of earth’s rainwater a lot of the rain that falls on the rain forest never reaches the ground. It stays within the trees because the leaves act as a shield, and some rain never gets past the trees to the smaller plants and grounds below. Surprisingly, soil in rainforests is very poor in nutrients. This is because the nutrients are stored in the vast numbers of trees and plants rather than in the soil. Tree roots bind the soil together, while the canopy protects the soil from heavy rains. W...
In South America lies the largest and most wondrous rainforest in the world, the Amazon Rainforest. This 1.4 billion acre forest represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most bio-diverse tract of rainforest in the world. Ten percent of all known species on the planet are found in this rain forest, most of which have yet to be discovered. For the past century, the Amazon has been gradually decreasing in size due to agricultural expansion, ranching, infrastructure projects, energy exploration and illegal logging. In its current state, the Amazon is losing land equal to the size of the state of Delaware every year.
Lindsey, Rebecca. "Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles." Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles. NASA, 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 01 Mar. 2014. .
Brazil’s water usage can be divided into three main areas: industrial, domestic, and agriculture. Agriculture is the main facet in Brazil’s economy which makes water their biggest concern. Brazil has three main water basins: Amazons, Tocantins and São Francisco. They also have two other basin systems which comprise many smaller basins. The Amazon River basin is very important; being one of the biggest rivers in the world, its huge output accounts for over half of Brazil’s “Drainage Basin.” Surface water is not Brazil’s only abundance in water; subsurface water is also widely available in Brazil. Even with Brazil’s great abundance of water, there are still some regions which are drier, such as the northeast. If maintained properly, their water resources are sufficient to provide for all irrigation “for the foreseeable future”. Brazil has been a part of many treaties including “Treaty of the River del Plata, Amazon Cooperation Treaty, Cooperation Agreement for the Use of Natural Resources and Development of the Quaraí River Basin and the Treaty for the use of Shared Natural Resources of the Bordering Stretches of the Uruguay River and its tributary, the Pepiri-Guaçu River, between Brazil and Argentina.” All of these treaties were signed as different means to protect one of Brazil’s most abundant natural resources. The other reason that water is so important to Brazil is its use as a power supply. Almost 93% of the power they use comes from hydroelectric power. They even house the world’s largest hydroelectricity plant which they share with Paraguay. Currently only about one-fifth of the country’s capacity in hydroelectric production is being tapped. (Kundell, 2008) Brazil faces three major issues when it comes to water: flood...
Fearnside, Philip M. "Deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia: History, Rates, and Consequences." Conservation Biology 19.3 (2005): 680-688. Print.
Nyborg, Marit. Hydropower and Tropical Rainforests. FIVA. May 1994. (6 November 2002) RCF.