Day 5 : Cycles

6/22/16
This is my last full day of my trip in the Amazon and I can not wait to find out what I learn about today. I am going to study a little bit into detail on how humans have affected the amazon. I know we have already affected it through deforestation and it is becoming a major problem throughout the world with an annual loss of 27,423 km per year. 40% of yearly carbon loss comes through deforestation. Ones the forest has been logged in brings many gaps in the canopy causing for drier trees and ground areas which is bad in all situations. Some rain-forests in the past couple have years have been experiencing drought and deforestation only makes these way worse. Deforestation needs to stop so we can protect and preserve wildlife. The water cycle is a big part of the Amazon as you can imagine the Biome revolves around water and rainfall. There is no more rainfall anywhere than in the tropical rain forests in the world. The amazon itself receives around 60 mm annually of rain. Transpiration where leaves release water into the atmosphere is a big part of the water cycle in the rain forest considering most the water in stored in plants and leaves and trees. The atmosphere then stores this water for little amounts of time before releasing it as rain very quickly and heavily. Then is stored in the ground, leaves or rivers through runoff. Nitrogen is also a big part of the Amazon I have noticed in the past 5 days. When a plant dies it gives off nitrogen to the soil. Then it is released into the atmosphere and it can not be used by plants because it is not in the right form. It must be "fixed" so it can by usable, approximately 130 metric tons of nitrogen are fixed each year. Then the plants are eaten by herbivores and they contain the nitrogen until they die and the nitrogen is released back into the soil. I think of this every time I pass a dead plant or animal, even though they are dead they are still contributing to the ecosystem. The picture below is of the river where water is stored during the water cycle. This trip was one of the best things I've ever done and I can't wait to explore other ecosystems in the future.

Day 4 : food web and pyramid

6/21/16
On the fourth day of my journey I researched what the animals eat into more detail and came to a conclusion with his food web.

As you can see the top predators are the caiman and jaguar mainly. Some of the producers include, grass, palm trees, orchards and mango trees. Second level consumers include toucan, monkeys and sloths. The producers receive their energy from the sun. The arrows pointing to means that organism is consuming the arrow point against organism. It has taken me 4 days to finish this through my studies of the different plants and animals.

As you move up on the pyramid the available energy decreases that is why their is less of the top level animals or top predators such as the Bengals or Jaguars. It decreases by the 10th. 

Day 3 : The plants/animals survival

6/20/16
Plants and animals around me have found a way to somehow stay alive through the immense population of other animals and plants. It amazes me very day how they change their lifestyles to stay alive! These changed are called adaptations.Most animals in the tropical rain forest have a predator and are being hunted at almost all times. Animals need to stay safe from these predators at all times so they use camouflage. They change the color of their skin to blend in with their surroundings to not be seen by a predator. I almost stepped on a leaf-tailed Gieko today because I did not see it camouflaging on the log I stepped on. Another way that animals have adapted is changing their diets. They have done this by eating foods eaten by no other animals so they have a constant supply of it and don't have to worry about running out of food or starvation. Toucans have developed eating fruit with their long beak at the top of trees in the past 100 years. Piranhas in the rain forest's rivers have adapted to swim in schools instead of by themselves for hunting to make it easier to find prey. Plants have adapted in many ways as well that I can see with my very own eyes. Seeds that fall to the ground quickly die due to no sunlight so animals have dropped them on host tree's branches to have them grow on their. Bark of certain types of trees have adapted to becoming thicker so the water can evaporate faster and doesn't sit in the tree. This bark is found on some types of deciduous trees. I like to set my tents up around these types of trees because they protect from a lot of the rainfall. When too much water stays on or in a leaf it makes it hard for it to survive that is why many leaves have adapted the drip tips. The drip tip makes it easier for water to run off and not stay on the leave, but it makes it harder for me to walk without getting water on my head!! The density dependent factors in the rain forest are animals hunting more a specific type of prey and different parasites that take over animals. A density independent factor could be the deforestation. It is very sad to see the affecting of the ecosystem due to this, almost disgusting. Also, natural disasters such as droughts which are very rare due to the humidity but when they do happen, like back in 2005, lots of carbon dioxide gets released to the atmosphere and lots of animals die. Below I have a picture of a Gieko in camouflage and one of the old 2005 drought I have.

                                                                  

   

Day 2 : Observations

6/19/16
On day 2 I decided to look around and embrace the environments and look at how the plants and animals live to survive through relationships. A way that the Capuchin monkey and flowering trees interact is when the monkey drinks pollen from the tree it gets on its fur and when it goes to drink from the next tree the pollen falls off into the new flowering tree allowing it to create more pollen and survive. This would be an example of mutualism where both species benefit from each other to survive. Another is example the strangler fig that grows out of the tree and for sunlight to stay alive it grows high. When the strangler fig grows high for sunlight, it ultimately kills the tree by taking up all the sunlight. I have seen many dying trees due to the fact that they aren't getting enough sunlight because of these fig's. This is an example of a Parasitism symbiotic relationship in a biome. Also, a relationship can be seen between a type of branch called bromeliads, they also grow out on the tree to get more sunlight, but they do not strangle the tree causing the tree to live and the branch to benefit by getting sunlight, this example is called commensalism. Lots of plants strive for sunlight as you can see in the relationships, this an example of resource competition and I see it going on a lot here. Also lots of birds exist in this rain forest and they fight over the same earthworms/food. For a bird in the rain forest you must be quick when trying to get food because it is very hard to accomplish. The largest competition is between the plants and the animals in a fight for food and growth. It is amazing to see how all the animals and plants interact in either good or bad ways to survive and thrive in the Amazon. This picture below is one I took of the strangler fig killing the tree slowly.