The Amazon rainforest, home to nearly a tenth of the planet's species, is burning. As of last week, 9,000 wildfires had simultaneously occurred in Brazil's vast rainforests and spread to Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru. According to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, the number of rainforest fires has increased by 80 percent from the same period last year, and fires can now even be seen in space.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL NICHOLS, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLE
In recent years, under the orders of the new president Jair Bolsanaro, Brazil's practice of burning tropical rainforests for agricultural and pastoral land has further accelerated.
Although the occurrence of a small number of wildfires in some places (including many forests in the United States) is essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems, many animals adapt to wildfires and even rely on wildfires to grow. For example, the black-bellied woodpecker in the western United States only inhabits withered trees and eats rotten wood for a living.
However, rainforests should never be burned by wildfires. No link in the rainforest ecosystem is adaptable to combustion. In recent years, more and more man-made fires have plagued the Amazon rainforest region, endangering the safety of the local ecosystem.
From an animal perspective, the effects of fires in these rainforests on them include both immediate and long-term effects.
<h1>The impact of wildfires on wildlife at the moment</h1>
"In the short term, wildlife populations can suffer huge losses." Mazeika Sullivan, who conducted fieldwork in the Amazon region, said.
In general, in wildfires, wildlife has little choice. They either hide in the water, hide underground, or just run. All in all, wildlife is at risk of displacement.
However, there are many reasons to kill them before fleeing: the flames, the heat emitted by the flames, even the smoke caused by the combustion...
PHOTOGRAPH BY CLAUS MEYER, MINDEN PICTURES/NAT GEO
The Crimson-bellied Cone-tailed Parrot is one of 1,500 species of birds in the Amazon rainforest. As the fire spreads, the living environment of wild animals will become less and less optimistic.
Sullivan said: "In an ecosystem like a tropical rainforest that is not adapted to combustion, most animals will die in a short period of time if they catch fire. ”
Animals that are good at running have better luck. The innate mobility advantage helps large "runners" such as jaguars and jaguars to escape like birds. But sluggish animals like sloths and anteaters, or small animals like frogs and lizards, can die because they can't get out of the scene of a fire quickly.
<h1>A situation of species extinction</h1>
Magnusson of the National Amazon Institute says wildfires in the Amazon are quite different from those in the United States, Europe or Australia. In those places we know a lot about species distribution, while in the Amazon we know very little about the range of most animals in the rainforest to determine which species are threatened.
Some of these species are in the midst of a life-and-death situation.
The endangered Milton's titi, discovered in southern Brazil in 2011, was hit hard by the forest fire. Another species, also a recently discovered species, the Mura's saddleback tamarin, is also seriously threatened by forest fires.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ADRIANO GAMBARINI
Pictured by Milton Monkey huddled on a branch, taken in 2011
<h1>Long-term effects of wildfires on rainforest animals</h1>
"The long-term impact is more catastrophic." Sullivan said.
For those burning areas of rainforest, the entire ecosystem will be altered. For example, the dense canopy of the Amazon rainforest largely blocks sunlight from reaching the ground. The fire suddenly opened the canopy, bringing light, fundamentally changing the energy cycle of the entire ecosystem.
The so-called "fire at the city gate affects pond fish", and the fire may have a knock-on effect on the entire food chain. When ecosystems undergo a fundamental transformation, many of these species that survived the fires will still face major crises. For example, amphibians with textured and other camouflage structures on their skin, their special skin is conducive to hiding behind the bark or leaves, but now, the canopy has collapsed, and they are suddenly forced to "change the background" and are exposed to the environment.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY, LAUREN DAUPH
NASA satellites captured smoke over the Amazon rainforest.
Species have gradually adapted to their environment over the course of evolution, and many creatures in the Amazon rainforest are experts in this.
The long beak of the Plover can reach into narrow crevices and help them eat fruit that other animals can't. However, wildfires burn out the fruits that birds rely on, potentially putting the local hawks in crisis.
Spider apes live high in the canopy to avoid fierce survival competition on the ground. But now that the canopy has been burned down, where do they go now?
After the disaster, the only things that are likely to benefit are the birds of prey and predators at the top of the food chain, wildfires, helping them clean up the battlefield and make their hunting easy. However, after a full meal, their future is equally worrying.
<h1>Today's situation</h1>
Nowadays, even in the circle of friends, we can brush up on the news about the Amazon rainforest fire.
Abroad, environmentalists and citizens dominated social media, #PrayForAmazonas became a hot hashtag on Twitter last Wednesday. Many have criticized the Brazilian government's policies, while others have expressed concern that global demand for beef will spur Brazil to speed up the clearance of ranchlands, leaving the fire hazards of the Amazon rainforest lingering.
#救救地球之肺吧!
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