The physical features of a rainforest are mainly divided into four categories. These classifications are emergent, upper canopy, under story and the floor of the forest.
Rainforests are home to half of Earth's plant and animal species. Also, they help maintain global rain and weather patterns. Much of the water that evaporates from trees returns in the form of rainfall. Removal of the forest can change the natural rainfall patterns.
Introduction. The tropical rainforest is earth's most complex biome in terms of both structure and species diversity. It occurs under optimal growing conditions: abundant precipitation and year round warmth. There is no annual rhythm to the forest; rather each species has evolved its own flowering and fruiting seasons. Sunlight is a major limiting factor. A variety of strategies have been successful in the struggle to reach light or to adapt to the low intensity of light beneath the canopy.
Climate: (Koeppen's Af and Am climate types.) Mean monthly temperatures are above 64 ° F; precipitation is often in excess of 100 inches a year. There is usually a brief season of reduced precipitation. In monsoonal areas, there is a real dry s eason, but that is more than compensated for with abundant precipitation the rest of the year.
Vegetation: A vertical stratification of three layer of trees is apparent.. These layers have been identified as A, B, and C layers:
Growthforms: Various growthforms represent strategies to reach sunlight:
Common characteristics of tropical trees. Tropical species frequently possess one or more of the following attributes not seen in trees of higher latitudes.
Other characteristics that distinguish tropical species of trees from those of temperate forests include
Soil: Oxisols, infertile, deeply weathered and severely leached, have developed on the ancient Gondwanan shields. Rapid bacterial decay prevents the accumulation of humus. The concentration of iron and aluminum oxides by the laterization pro cess gives the oxisols a bright red color and sometimes produces minable deposits (e.g., bauxite). On younger substrates, especially of volcanic origin, tropical soils may be quite fertile.
Subclimaxes: Distinct communities (varzea) develop on floodplains. Jungles may line rivers where sunlight penetrates all layers of the forest. Where forests have long been cleared and laterites have developed to cause season waterlogging of the sub strate, tropical grasslands and palm savannas occur.
Fauna: Animal life is highly diverse. Common characteristics found among mammals and birds (and reptiles and amphibians, too) include adaptations to an arboreal life (for example, the prehensile tails of New World monkeys), bright colors and sharp patterns, loud vocalizations, and diets heavy on fruits.
Distribution of biome: The tropical rainforest is found between 10 ° N and 10 ° S latitude at elevations below 3,000 feet. There are three major, disjunct formations:
The species composition and even genera and families are distinct in each. They also differ from species of temperate forests. Species diversity is highest in the extensive neotropical forest; second in the highly fragmented Indo-Malaysian formation; and lowest in Africa. Where 5 to a maximum of 30 species of tree share dominance in the Temperate Broadleaf Deciduous Forest, there may be 40 to 100 different species in one hectare of tropical rainforest. Tropical species of both plants and animals often hav e very restricted distribution areas.
Alpine expressions of the biome: A simplification of the tropical rainforest in species composition and in stratification occurs as elevation exceeds 3000 ft. Distinct communities are found at higher elevations, communities that do not replicate latitudinal changes in vegetation as do alpine communities in temperate zones.
rainforests are wet and hot,there are exotic creatures that live in the tropical rqinforests and it is constantly raining there
natural region such as a tropical rain forest has unique plant and animal life and a unique climate.
There are no tropical rain forests in Minnesota.
tropical seasonal forests have wet season and dry season and tropical rain forests have lots of rainfall through out the year
Squirrel monkeys can live in tropical rain forests.
No, white tigers do not live in tropical rain forests.
No, there are no tropical rain forests in Washington State. There are, however, temperate rain forests on the Olympic Peninsula. These rain forests are cooler in temperature than the tropical forests and house different species.
You should not protect tropical rain forests because why do we need rain forests.
they live in hot, dry forests. not rain forests.
Tropical rain forests are so named because of the high level of rain in these forests.
Yes they are, most Tropical Rain Forests are near the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer.
Tropical rain forests are the most diverse ecosystems in the world.
No.