Conservation Problems in the Amazon Basin

Conservationists have placed much emphasis on the poverty of the Amazonian soil. But there is considerable variation in soil type within Amazonia, and recent surveys have emphasized this point and have, in fact, found some large areas of quite fertile soil. The Amazon River, said to be the longest in the world, extends 6,740 kilometers to the sea, draining a watershed of 7 million square kilometers. The Amazon also transports the greatest volume of water of the world’s rivers. Despite a long history of biological exploration, the Amazon region remains one of the world’s least-known ecosystems. Worldwide climatic changes during the Pleistocene Epoch and in more recent times also affected the Amazon region profoundly. The tropical forest ecosystem is the most productive in the world in spite of poor soils, heavy rainfall, and a series of pathogens. The interactions among the plants, mycorrhizal fungi, insects, other animals, and climate are extremely complicated.