Unit 3: Amazonia

Students explore connections between the agricultural and grazing practices currently responsible for large-scale deforestation in Amazonia, and local, regional, and global climate. They investigate the role of rainforest in regulating atmospheric gases and stabilizing rainfall. They analyze patterns of Amazonian deforestation and habitat fragmentation, analyze the economic ecology of soybean production, cattle ranching and forestry land uses, and conduct a stakeholder analysis. Finally, student teams prepare a plan for a small region of Amazonia, juggling types of land use to optimize critical factors such as biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, economic benefits and viable agriculture.

Minimum System Requirements

To help ensure a good experience viewing our e-books, we recommend the following minimum system requirements.

  • Operating System: Windows XP®,Vista®,7®,8®; Mac OS X®
  • Processor Speed: 2 GHz
  • Memory: 512 MB (Windows XP®); 1 GB (Windows Vista® or Mac OS X®)
  • Connection Speed: 1.5 Mbit/sec
  • Browser: Internet Explorer 7®; Firefox 4® (Windows®); Firefox® 4 (Mac®)1; Safari® 4
  • Other:
    Adobe Reader® (Windows®)2
    Adobe Flash®2

3 For windows users please use the Adobe Reader Plug In – see link below. Adobe Reader may be downloaded free of charge at http://get.adobe.com/reader.

4 All iOS device users (iPad, iPhone, iPod) please enable cookies in your Safari browser or you will not be able to log into the site. To enable cookies please see link below.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ta38613?viewlocale=en_us

5 All Android device users please install the Adobe Reader Plugin.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adobe.reader&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd