Introduction

Abstract

The rain forests of the Amazon Basin cover approximately 5.8 × 10⁶ km² (Salati and Vose 1984). Flying over even just part of this basin, one gazes hour after hour upon this seemingly infinite blanket of green. The impression of immensity is similar when viewed from the Amazon River itself, or from its tributaries. From a hammock on the shaded deck of a riverboat, the immensity of the forest presents an incredible monotony as one view of the shoreline blends unnoticeably into another. From both perspectives, the overwhelming reaction to the sea of trees that stretches from horizon to horizon is a sense of the vastness of the rain forest.