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Forest Biological Resources in the Amazon Basin

  • Conference paper
Biological Resources and Migration

Abstract

The Amazon region holds the world’s largest area of tropical rain forest which was settled by the first humans during the Late Pleistocene. A strong anthropogenic impact began in the 1960s when large areas of the tropical forest were cleared. To protect this ecosystem, sustainable utilization of its biological resources is urgently needed.

The most productive areas are the floodplains of the Amazon River which are built up by suspended solids deriving from the Andes. The study was focused on the várzea forest, where a relatively high potential for sustainable agro-forestry can be assumed. Since nitrogen may be the limiting factor, N2 fixation by nodulated legumes was extensively studied. Legumes provided an annual nitrogen gain between 12.9 and 16.1 kg N ha−1. Considering all available data of input and output, the nitrogen balance was positive. The amount of nitrogen stored in the biomass of the vrzea forest is about 50 times the annual nitrogen input. The use of N2-fixing legumes may open new perspectives for a sustainable use and protection of the várzea forest.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ATB), 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Heidi Kreibich & Jürgen Kern

  2. Section Engineering Hydrology, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, 13373, Potsdam, Germany

    Heidi Kreibich

Authors
  1. Heidi Kreibich
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  2. Jürgen Kern
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Institute of Cellbiology and Applied Botany, Philipps-University Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch-Straße, 35032, Marburg, Germany

    Dietrich Werner

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kreibich, H., Kern, J. (2004). Forest Biological Resources in the Amazon Basin. In: Werner, D. (eds) Biological Resources and Migration. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06083-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06083-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-05989-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-06083-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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