We explain what the jungle is and how it differs from deserts. Animals and vegetation of the jungle. The Amazon jungle.
What is the jungle?
When we speak of Jungle, jungle or tropical rain forest, we refer fundamentally to a scenery bioclimatic, characterized by its frequent rainfall, its warm climate and abundant vegetation, organized at different levels of height.
However, there is no clear definition that distinguishes or reconciles these different terms, used more or less arbitrarily, usually with climatic additions such asrain forest or equatorial jungle, depending on its geographical location.
In the different forests of the planet there are practically two thirds of thebiomass total of the planet, which represents a biodiversity incredible: millions of plant and animal species, many yet to be discovered by the humanity.
Forests are also the largest oxygen generation centers in the world (they produce almost 40% of it) and ecological refuges that even housecommunities pre-modern humans, such as the Yanomami tribes in the Amazon.
However, large expanses of jungle in the Earth are under siege by the wood or paper industries, or by the constant expansion of the urban area of our large cities.
Activities such as illegal mining (thegarimpeiros Brazilians, for example, in the Amazon) also generate a hugeenvironmental impact, much more drastic and accelerated, due to the use of polluting substances such as mercury, and tomethods extraction that deteriorate the I usually semi-permanently.
The 1990s saw an increase in the rate of deforestation worldwide, reducing the area covered by woods and forests from 14% of the total land area to just 6%, losing an annual average of 58,000 square kilometers. If this rate of plant destruction continues, by the year 2050 they will have virtually disappeared from the planet.
Jungle animals
The fauna of the jungle varies according to its geographical location and its evolutionary history, but it is usually varied, abundant and rich in exchanges between species. Broadly speaking, we could organize them into the following categories:
- Big predators. Like the cats of medium and superior size: jaguars, panthers, tigers, pumas, capable of chasing the prey between the foliage. Too prey birds such as the hawk, the eagle or the night owl or the hunting and constrictor snakes (boa, anaconda, etc.).
- Herbivores medium and large. Especially quadrupeds like the tapir or tapir, or in the African jungles, elephants and hippos, large ruminants.
- Insects and arachnids. Thousands, perhaps millions of species of insects and arachnids make up a whole ecosystem in themselves, linking with the flora on which they feed (fruits, leaves, nectar, bark, etc.) and feeding rodents, birds and other insects or arachnids. Spiders, scorpions and praying mantises are not in short supply either.
- Rodents Abundant in the trellis of trees or undergrowth litter, they tend to encompass a whole range of climbers, runners and egg raiders. Many are scavengers.
- Small and medium birds. Birds of various sizes, generally endowed with showy plumages and specialized beaks for obtaining food within trunks, the Water, the land or for the predation of the minor species.
- Primates Chimpanzees, orangutans, and other close cousins of the man.
Jungle vegetation
Usually all levels of vegetation are found in the jungle.
The jungle flora is particularly abundant, due to the high levels of humidity and precipitation, when not derived from rivers and lagoons or mangroves.
Usually all levels of vegetation are found in the jungle, from the creeping and shrub, to the large trees with a leafy crown, and the flat parasites on them. In these cases there is a fierce struggle for light, so many species they resort to various strategies to survive.
Amazon jungle
The Amazon is located in South America, in part of the territory of the nations of Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname. It is one of the largest extensions of humid tropical forest in the world, where millions of plant species and animals, which has earned it the distinction of being one of the seven natural wonders of the planet.
The Amazon rainforest develops in the vicinity of the Amazon River and its river basin, where the warm and rainy climate predominates, benefited by an evergreen and abundant vegetation. In its approach to Peru and the Andean mountain range, the jungle also gains several stories in height and increases its biodiversity even more.
Desert
The desert is often considered the opposite ecoregion to the rainforests. It is an arid area, with little or no precipitation, and therefore low fertile floors and scarce life, adapted to the extreme conditions of temperature (intense heat during the day, cold at night) and drought.
Today deserts occupy about 50 million square kilometers of the land surface, that is to say, almost a third of the planet.