Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the largest drainage basin in the world, covering area of about 7 million square kilometres

the health of forests as climate stores is being impacted by the shifting of climate belts

the health of these forests as carbon stores is being challenged in three ways: deforestation, the poleward shift of climatic belts and by increasing droughts

the amazon acts as a giant climate regulator, pumping 20 billion tonnes of water into the atmosphere each day, 3 billion tonnes more than the Amazon River discharges into the Atlantic Ocean.

the forest’s uniform humidity lowers atmospheric pressure, allowing moisture from the Atlantic to reach almost across the continent.

since 1990 a cycle of extreme drought and flooding has been noticed. Droughts in 2005 and 2010 greatly degraded much of the forest already stressed by prolonged and large-scale deforestation

this diminishing health leads to the rainforest declining as a carbon store, sequestering less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (which exacerbates the greenhouse effect) and its role diminishing in the hydrological cycle