After searching for it for 3 years, discovering the tallest trees in the Amazon
Three years of planning, expeditions and a two-week trek in the jungle culminated in a team of scientists reaching the largest tree ever discovered in the Amazon rainforest.
The giant tree is located in the Irataburu River Nature Reserve in northern Brazil . It is of the Denisia Excelsa type. It is 88.5 meters high and 9.9 meters in diameter, and its length is equivalent to a 25-storey building.
Scientists first spotted the tree through satellite images in 2019, and then a local team, including researchers, environmentalists and guides, tried to reach it during the same year.
After a 10-day trek in rough terrain, the team had to return after its members were tired and with a limited amount of food in their possession, in addition to one of them falling ill.
Great results for excursions
Three other expeditions in the remote area of the Gary Valley on the border between the states of Amapá and Para, gave access to a large number of other giant trees , including the largest Brazilian nut ever observed in the Amazon with a height of 66 meters.
Reaching the Denisia Excelsa tree, however, was not achieved until the expedition of September 12-25 in which the researchers traversed 250 km by boat and more than 20 km by walking through the mountain forest.
One of the members of the expedition, which included 19 people, was bitten by an animal that the team doctor believed to be a poisonous spider .
The group took samples that will be analyzed to obtain information about the tree, most notably its age (according to expectations, it is at least 400 to 600 years) and the amount of carbon it stores.
The weight of the giant trees in this region reaches 400,000 tons, while half of this figure is carbon that the trees have absorbed from the atmosphere.
Although these trees are located in a remote area, they are under threat, because loggers value the wood of Denisia excelsa, while the reserve is heavily frequented by illegal gold miners .
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has risen 75 percent over the past three years compared to what was cut down over the previous decade.
Source: websites