New Explanation for the Origin of High Species Diversity in Amazon

November 14, 2010

An international team of scientists, including a leading evolutionary biologist from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, have reset the agenda for future research in the highly diverse Amazon region by showing that the extraordinary diversity found there is much older than generally thought.

The findings from this study, which draws on research by the Academy's Dr. John Lundberg and other scientists, were published as a review article in the journal Science. The study shows that Amazonian diversity has evolved as by-product of the Andean mountain uplift over millions of years, despite previous focus on the more recent history


New research shows that Amazonian diversity has evolved as by-product of the Andean mountain uplift over millions of years, despite previous focus on the more recent history.

www.sciencedaily.com...

The Amazon rain forest is the life blood of our planet, if it continues to be destroyed we are in big trouble. The diversity found there is very important to our ecosystem. Everything is connected, the very air we breathe has everything to do with not only the Amazon rain forest but all the rain forests on our planet.

This region, from high in the Andes mountains to the lowland rivers, supports a tremendous biological richness of species that also influences our planet in ways we still don't understand, they need to do more then study this region of the world, it also needs to be protected.

reply to post by Aquarius1


Nice one, thanks Aquarius.

I imagine that the 'age' of the diversity's progression should have been relatively obvious, but you know how scientists are. Well, a lot of them I should say. This is good, though, it'll indeed give them a better grip on it all.

I have been wondering of late what the forest was like when all those cities there, now buried under the flora, were flourishing. From the looks of things they were rather extensive, and obviously cleared a lot of forest away. I bet the forests came right up to them, though! So it probably wasn't too, too much different.

For those who don't quite twig just how diverse lifeforms are around there, there are many species of insect, for example, to take just one group, that exist on just one tree! Yes, a single tree.

Think about that for a spell.

Thanks for the good news,

Peace,
Pixel

reply to post by PixelDuster

For those who don't quite twig just how diverse lifeforms are around there, there are many species of insect, for example, to take just one group, that exist on just one tree! Yes, a single tree.

Thanks Pixie, I have thought of your example and it is amazing, I believe that there is reason for everything even if it's one species of insects that exist on one tree, that would be something to behold.

Hopefully the more science finds out the more they will realize they shouldn't mess with mother nature, what they don't know is they cannot win.

Thanks for posting.

Rainforest Biodiversity Shows Differing Patterns
ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2007) — Rainforests are the world's treasure houses of biodiversity, but all rainforests are not the same. Biodiversity may be more evenly distributed in some forests than in others and, therefore, may require different management and preservation strategies. That is one of the conclusions of a large-scale Smithsonian study of a lowland rainforest in New Guinea, published in the Aug. 9 issue of the journal Nature.


A boy holds a large caterpillar on a stick. (Credit: Image courtesy of Smithsonian)
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/22c0a2febacf.jpg[/atsimg]

www.sciencedaily.com...

Here is a related story from 2007 showing just one species from the Amazon, that is a pretty big caterpillar. This is not a study to find diversity and the relationship to the Amazon but is a small but important part of it.