**The Amazon Glaciers**

**The Amazon Glaciers**

[89] Li Y, et al. Geomorphometric controls on mountain glacier changes since the Little Ice Age in the Eastern Tien Shan, Central Asia. Annals of the American Association of Geographers.

[90] Liaw A and Wiener M. Classification and regression by randomForest. R News.

2017;**107**(2):284-298

60 Glacier Evolution in a Changing World

2002;**2**(3):18-22

Rafael da Rocha Ribeiro, Jefferson Cardia Simões and Edson Ramirez Simões and Edson Ramirez Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Rafael da Rocha Ribeiro, Jefferson Cardia

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70490

#### **Abstract**

In this chapter, we will examine the relationship between the Andean tropical glaciers and the Amazon rainforest, presenting a comprehensive overview on those ice masses that are the headwaters of the Amazon River and examining changes in environmental processes that may affect their mass balance and how they may feedback into the Amazon lowlands environmental processes. The first part of this chapter describes the present glaciological knowledge on these Andean ice masses that flow towards the Amazon drainage basin, about 1666 km<sup>2</sup> (of which 68% are in Peru, 24% in Bolivia and the remaining 8% in Ecuador). The mass balance of these glaciers is strongly dependent on the Amazon hydrological cycle, as water coming from the Atlantic Ocean and recycled though the rainforest is the main source of their precipitation. A second part of the chapter explores how two environmental systems are interconnected and interacted. The third part of chapter examines the present (last 50 years) human-made changes in the Amazon basin and how they may affect the Andean ice masses. These glaciers also hold the best proxy for the Amazon Holocene changes, the record left in the snow and ice chemistry. So, as a complement to this chapter, we review the information on the paleoenvironmental changes found in ice cores in Bolivia and Peru and what they may point about the future of the Andean tropical glaciers.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70490

**Keywords:** Amazon basin, tropical glaciers, South America
