Huge Oxygen Factory: The Amazon Forest

- Hasmukh Gajjar

- A large portion of the tropical forest is located in the Amazon Basin, which makes up about 40 percent of the Earth's total rainfall.

When it comes to gas, the Amazon rainforest, spread over an area of ​​2.1 million square miles across six countries in the South American continent, is thought to provide about 70 percent of the Earth's oxygen. Oxygen is produced through the action of photosynthesis (photosynthesis) of plants. Photosynthesis annually converts 115 billion tons of carbon into biomass. Although this action varies among different tree and plant leaf species, its characteristics are similar.

A significant portion of the tropical forest, which is important for photosynthesis on Earth, is located in the Amazon Basin, which accounts for about 70 percent of the Earth's rainfall. Different types of trees vary in their ability to provide oxygen, but in general a healthy leaf mass of a tree can produce 115 liters of oxygen per year. A man needs five trees to supply the oxygen he needs to breathe during the year.

However, most of the oxygen that is inhaled by life on Earth comes from the oceans, which have been the same for millions of years. According to an estimate, the earth's atmosphere contains 3 billion billion tons of air. The Earth's atmosphere contains 4% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 0.05% carbon dioxide and 0.5% other gases. Algae-like marine plants provide 20 to 30 percent oxygen to the atmosphere. Since most of the land is covered with water, these marine plants provide more oxygen than the land plants.

Seaweed is on the surface of the water, absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases oxygen. In that sense, it is possible that the seaweed could only provide oxygen. Pure oxygen is also found in the Earth's atmosphere in the same way that some dead algae are completely decomposed using oxygen dissolved in water and releasing carbon stored in their bodies into the water.

An adult breathes 3 to 4 liters of air per minute. 11,000 liters of air is required per day. This air contains 90% oxygen, of which the body absorbs about 5% of the oxygen, and the rest is released in the form of carbon dioxide. In this way, a person consumes 20 liters of pure oxygen daily. A person with good respiratory system and health takes about 15 breaths per minute and approximately 2000 breaths a day. 15 to 20 breaths per minute is considered normal. Man can live for days without food but not for a minute without oxygen.

Even if 31% of oxygen disappears from the earth for 10 seconds, it will be uprooted and that is why it is oxygen. It has been widely reported that the Amazon accounts for 40 percent of the Earth's oxygen production, but some researchers in the field of atmospheric science disagree. According to him, there is a need to understand some confusion regarding tropical forest and oxygen production like Amazon.

In rainforests like the Amazon, fossils, including tree branches, leaves, fruits, and flowers, are buried in the ground below. When these residues naturally decompose and combust, they use oxygen to release carbon dioxide as an emitter. Most insects and micro-organisms consume abundant oxygen during decomposition. This cycle of production of oxygen for life and use of oxygen after death continues in the forests.

There is no doubt that the forests of the Amazon produce oxygen through the action of photosynthesis but the microbes of the forest also consume a lot of it resulting in zero net production of oxygen by the forests. In short, atmospheric scientists do not see rainforests like the Amazon as the largest producers of oxygen on Earth. Not only that, the Amazon does not consider the increasing incidence of forest fires to be a major threat to the Earth's atmospheric oxygen.

However environmentalists clearly believe that rainforests like the Amazon have a very large role to play in the Earth’s environment. The Amazon has more than 50,000 species of plants and trees. It is home to more than 3 lakh species of living insects. Many mysterious species are not found anywhere else in the world. The Amazon rainforest has existed on Earth for approximately 3 million years. According to one study, three football fields are being cut down every minute. Eleven percent of the Amazon's forests have been cleared. According to a study by the US National Institute of Space Research, the number of forest fires around the Amazon River in Brazil has risen by 3%.

If even a single tree were to act as a biological pump for the environment, the jungle of the Amazon would be like the lungs of the earth. Since the beginning of industrialization 200 years ago, deforestation has declined by 3%, with tropical forests being the most deforested. Some time ago, it was predicted about the Amazon rainforest that if the Baroque forest continues to be deforested in this way, it will not exist in 202. If the forest area, which has its own climate, does not remain, its impact will be felt not only locally but also globally.