Amazon Rainforest and the Amazon River

The Amazon Rainforest is a rainforest in Brazil that contains 10% of the world’s biodiversity. About 15% of the world’s river discharge, which is when a river empties into the ocean, comes from the Amazon River, a huge part of this rainforest. This river is around 7000 kilometers long, and has the most amount of freshwater fish species on Earth. Millions of years ago, the Amazon River flowed straight, from eastern to western Brazil. As the Andes Mountains grew taller, it started to block some of the river, creating freshwater lakes. Even though the Amazon is considered to only be a rainforest, the Amazon River Basin has many different ecosystems, like savannas, rivers, and rainforests. Rainfall in the Amazon Rainforest follows a seasonal pattern, and gets between 1500 and 3000 millimeters of rain per year. The winds from the Atlantic Ocean bring water, which falls onto the forest before it hits the Andes. Overall, the Amazon Rainforest and the Amazon River are home to thousands of species of plants and animals, and is one of the most important ecosystems in the world [6].