Climate crisis is already affecting the Brazilian Amazon
- October 27, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Climate crisis is already affecting the Brazilian Amazon
Subject: Environment
Section: Ecosystem
Context:
- The Amazon rainforest is home to at least 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals, 1,294 birds, 378 reptiles, 427 amphibians and around 3,000 fish. The latest edition of the Living Planet Report reveals an average drop of 69 per cent in the monitored populations of vertebrates — mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish — over the last four decades.
Details:
- Since 1970, the world has lost a third of its remaining wetlands, while freshwater wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 83 per cent.
- In Brazil, the population of pink dolphins in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, in the state of Amazonas, fell by 65 per cent between 1994 and 2016.
- Pink dolphins and Tucuxis from the Lake Tefé region are declining sharply and the cause of death is warming of water.
- Abnormal warming of the Atlantic Ocean coupled with El-Nino, the region is facing a severe drought.
- Water and thermal stress, nutrient depletion and altered population dynamics directly affect the survival of species.
- Savannization: If 20% or 25% of the forest is destroyed, the forest will enter a process of savannization and that would represent the death of the forest.
Amazon river dolphins (or pink dolphins):
- The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), also known as the boto, bufeo or pink river dolphin, is a species of toothed whale which is native to and is exclusively of South America classified in the family Iniidae.
- Three subspecies are currently recognized: I. g. geoffrensis (Amazon river dolphin), I. g. boliviensis (Bolivian river dolphin) and I. g. humboldtiana (Orinoco river dolphin) while position of Araguaian river dolphin (I. araguaiaensis) within the clade is still unclear.
- The three subspecies are distributed in the Amazon basin, the upper Madeira River in Bolivia, and the Orinoco basin, respectively.
- It is the largest species of river dolphin.
- Like other toothed whales, they have a melon, an organ that is used for bio sonar.
- They are carnivorous animals.
- IUCN Red list: Endangered
Amazon river dolphin range
Source: DownToEarth