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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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Monkey (from the Congo) deemed Lesula Fruit Bat (deemed Yoda) from Papua New Guinea.
Tropical Rainforests
There has been nearly 400 new species discovered in the rainforest but unfortunately these new discoveries are at risk. Scientists found 381 new species during a two-year study in the Amazon region conducted between the years of 2014 and 2015.
Scientists reported they were discovering a new species every couple days and found 216 previously unknown plants, 93 fish, 32 amphibians, 20 mammals, 19 reptiles and one bird. The discoveries were found across South American countries that have rainforests.
The world is estimated to have a total of 8.7 million species, and scientists believe 80% of these species have not been identified. The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and is home to the world's largest assortment of living species of plants and animals.
Even though the recent discoveries are abundant in numbers these discoveries are at risk because all of the discoveries are now having human interactions. Climate change is also having a negative impact on the inhabitants of the rainforest. The changes are so rapid that many species are becoming extinct before science has time to discover them.
The discovery of nearly 2,000 species in the last two decades has been a race against time for the species as they are fighting to survive amongst the mining and deforestation push that has taken over rainforest areas.
The richness of animal and botanical biodiversity in the Amazon is unparalleled, and the race between science and native people to save their home and the home of such diversity is a challenge.
Tropical Rainforests control the weather patterns across the world. The water from the trees in a rainforest comes back to earth as rain in other areas. The climate of the tropical rainforest is hot and wet with over 80 inches of rain per year. Tropical rainforest plants also have adapted to take in what little sunlight is available on the dark forest floor. Large leaves are common; they increase the amount of sunlight a plant can capture. Other plants, like orchids, bromeliads and ferns, grow as epiphytes high up in the canopy where there is more sunlight.
Many birds migrate to the rainforest to bred in the temperate climate. The rainforest is the home to native people who have successfully survived in the forest for thousands of years. Thousands of years of living in the rainforest the forest people have evolved to be smaller than people who do not live in the rainforest. They also sweat less because the forest's high humidity means that sweat cannot evaporate. Forest people also drink less water because their food contains a lot of water. Forest people have accumulated a great wealth of knowledge about the forest over thousands of years and have passed this knowledge on to each generation they have learned how to live in the forest without damaging it. They know how to use thousands of edible, medicinal, and poisonous plants and how to grow crops in the forest's poor soil.
Much of the Earth's biodiversity is concentrated in the tropics. Some scientists estimate that 50 percent of all species on the planet are found in tropical rainforests that comprise only 6 to 7 percent of the Earth's land surface. Given the rapid rate at which tropical rainforests are being cut, it is estimated that up to 20 percent of the Earth's biodiversity may become extinct in our lifetime!
Loss of this biodiversity means we would not only lose rich and beautiful environments but we might also lose plants and other organisms that could improve or enrich our lives. Tropical biodiversity has also provided us with many medicines used to treat diseases as malaria. How many more valuable products lie waiting in the tropical forests to be discovered no one really knows, but we do know that there are valuable species that would benefit mankind.
The emergent layer, these massive trees push above the dense canopy layer and have huge mushroom-shaped crowns. The canopy layer forms the broad, irregular crowns of these trees and they form a tight, continuous canopy 60 to 90 feet above the ground. The branches are often densely covered with other plants and tied together with vines.
The Understory receives only 2-15% of the sunlight that falls on the canopy, it is a dark place. It is relatively open and contains young trees and leafy herbaceous plants that tolerate low light. The forest floor receives less than 2% of the sunlight and so, little grows here except plants adapted to very low light. On the floor is a thin layer of fallen leaves, seeds, fruits, and branches that very quickly decomposes. Most tropical rainforest soils relatively poor in nutrients. Millions of years of weathering and torrential rains have washed most of the nutrients out of the soil.
The rainforest is a special, vast area which supply’s the earth with the rain it needs, creates climates for regions, and produces many useful plants which humans use, and is home to thousands of different species of flora, fauna and aquatic life. The value of the rainforests goes way beyond the mining and logging operations. The rainforest is all life itself and should be protected from those who want to destroy it for profit. If the rainforest is not protected from logging and mining it will be completely destroyed in the next 100 years. Then watch climate change go crazy, watch entire species go extinct, possibly such devastating effects that mankind will go the way of the DODO Bird.
Tammy
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