AMAZON
The Amazon is three-quarters the size of the United States and much of it is boringly flat. So what? Most people visit to see the rainforest, right? But the Amazon actually has a lot of different kinds of scenery. Besides the forest itself, there's the world's biggest river with 4,000 miles of infinitely variable rivers, streams, lakes, torrents and waterfalls. The Andes range lines the watershed's western edge. Here you can climb the highest mountains in the western hemisphere! From here snowmelt descends from alpine glaciers down to steamy tropical swamps. The weather varies from snowstorms in the mountains to tropical thunderstorms in the lowlands.
Forest Trails
The best way to get around the forest on foot is to follow an established trail. In the deep forest, it is quite easy to walk around as there is not much undergrowth but t is difficult to find your way around the forest without a trail, since all the trees and plants look alike—it's hard to tell one part of forest from another. Around forest patches and river edges, where there's a lot of light, the vegetation is just too dense to walk through, so you rely on someone else who has gone before and cut a trail. But it's not always easy going, after rain, the trail can get quite muddy!
Much of Amazonia is covered by forest that looks much like this. But appearances can be deceptive. Superficially similar, different areas of forest harbor different communities of plants and animals. The closer you look the more you see. This cannot be conveyed with a photograph, nor can the sounds or smells. A walk through the rainforest reveals a richness and depth of nature beyond description.
A walk through the forest reveals a wonder of shapes, sounds and colors—infinite variations on shades of green. Little-used trails don't last long because the exuberant vegetation soon takes over.
Much of Amazonia is covered by forest that looks much like this. But appearances can be deceptive. Superficially similar, different areas of forest harbor different communities of plants and animals. The closer you look the more you see. This cannot be conveyed with a photograph, nor can the sounds or smells. A walk through the rainforest reveals a richness and depth of nature beyond description.
A walk through the forest reveals a wonder of shapes, sounds and colors—infinite variations on shades of green. Little-used trails don't last long because the exuberant vegetation soon takes over.
CANOPY VIEW
To the untrained eye, the rainforest seems chaotic and disordered. But ecologists recognize there is structure behind the clutter of vegetation. The rainforest is arranged into four or five distinct layers: emergent, canopy, middle layer, shrub layer and forest floor. The canopy layer is the dense green of tree tops we see from the air, and is where most of the "action" takes place. The highest diversity of plants and animals in the rainforest is found in the canopy, 100 feet or more above the ground.
One of life's most inspiring experiences is to sit 100 feet above the ground and watch the mist rising from the rainforest canopy. Here is where most of the forest's biodiversity is to be found. Note the epiphytic mosses growing on the branch.
From Explorama's Canopy Walkway (near Iquitos, Peru) you can watch a new day dawn over the rainforest canopy. Here's a scene that's remained unchanged for millions of years.
To the untrained eye, the rainforest seems chaotic and disordered. But ecologists recognize there is structure behind the clutter of vegetation. The rainforest is arranged into four or five distinct layers: emergent, canopy, middle layer, shrub layer and forest floor. The canopy layer is the dense green of tree tops we see from the air, and is where most of the "action" takes place. The highest diversity of plants and animals in the rainforest is found in the canopy, 100 feet or more above the ground.
One of life's most inspiring experiences is to sit 100 feet above the ground and watch the mist rising from the rainforest canopy. Here is where most of the forest's biodiversity is to be found. Note the epiphytic mosses growing on the branch.
From Explorama's Canopy Walkway (near Iquitos, Peru) you can watch a new day dawn over the rainforest canopy. Here's a scene that's remained unchanged for millions of years.
FALLEN TREE
Across one of innumerable small tributaries a tree has fallen. On it a bromeliad and other epiphytes have found a sunny haven. What for people is an inconvenience is a bridge for rainforest animals, enabling them to cross what may otherwise be an impassable barrier. This provides a connection between patches of rainforest, adding to habitat complexity and enhancing species diversity.
valo jinis hehehe shukria 
TOTW/F/M Award(s): 2
Linear Mode
