Tropical Rainforest:
A tropical rainforest is a humid, moist biome located near the Earth’s equator, with the world’s largest rainforest being in South America, Southeast Asia and Africa. Rainforests collect from 60 to 160 inches of rainfall throughout the year, with the constant humidity and moisture within the rainforest creates the perfect biome for tropical condition thriving plants and animals. One of the world’s best environments for biodiversity are the tropical rainforests, they contain 15 million species of plants and animals. The humid conditions of the tropical rainforests are ideal for bacteria and other microorganisms, these organisms remain active for the whole year being at their optimum temperature they break down, decompose the forest floors matter for example decayed plants and other dead animals. In other biomes such as Deciduous forests decomposed leaf litter on the forests floor contributes to the nutrients of the forests soil whereas a Tropical rainforest grows so rapidly that the plants consume the broken down litter. This result in the plants retaining most of the nutrients rather than the sold allowing them to grow larger than the deciduous forests, any nutrients that are absorbed by the soil is leaked out by the amount of rainfall leaving the soil unfertile and acidic.
The biodiversity of this particular biome is vast and rapidly growing. One of the main reasons that there are so many species and animals living within this biome is due to the constant warm weather. It also supplies an almost 100% chance of water and food for the animals within. Small animals, including monkeys, birds, snakes, rodents, frogs and lizards are most common in tropical rainforests. Most of these animals and some insects rema...
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...ge, the leaves will dry up and eventually fall to the ground creating producing the nutrients to the soil.
There is a wide variety of animals within the deciduous forest. Mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and microorganisms can all be found in the forest, some of the most common animals found are bears, deer, elk, squirrels, skunks and wood mice. Due to vast hunting seasons deer and elk within this biome have become near extinct. Animals migrate and hibernate to adapt to the climates of the deciduous forest, many birds will migrate to better weather and most mammals will hibernate during the months were food is limited. Another behavioural adaptation some animals have learned is storing berries and nuts to last the limited food times. They use the cold weather as almost a fridge because the cold climate helps preserve the berries and nuts for long periods of time.
Tropical rainforests are an extremely unique and diverse ecosystem that are located around the earth’s equator. They once covered roughly 7% of the world, but due to human encroachment that has dwindled to just 2%. It is a highly moisture rich environment that typically receives anywhere between 60 and 400 inches of rainfall annually and average humidity ranges from 70 to 90%. A high average year round temperature, coupled with the moisture rich environment, creates an ecosystem that allows for a level of biodiversity seen nowhere else on the planet. This also results in a specific type of layering design that allows the system to survive and recycle its nutrients.
Nearing summer’s end, trees start to take back the nutrients from the leaves that it’s provided all season
The Brazilian Rainforest is one of the most unique, vast, and diverse regions of the world. To get a general idea of the diversity of the Rainforest, it makes up a total of one-third of the world forests (more than four million square kilometers), it contains half of the total number of named species in the world (eighty-thousand plant species, 1,500 fish species, and one-forth of the 8,600 bird species), and is the world largest holder of genes (Library 138-139). To say the least, the Brazilian Rainforest is one of the most important natural resources we, as humans, know. It would seem that this knowledge, alone, would also make the Brazilian Rainforest one of the most protected land areas on Earth as well. However, the situation is quite the opposite. The Brazilian Rainforest has been greatly degraded by deforestation since the 1960 , which has led to numerous negative effects both environmentally and socially. This paper introduces the events that opened the door to deforestation, the most immediate causes and effects of deforestation in the Brazilian Rainforest, and my two-part solution to the problem of deforestation.
way. Just as there is a variety of animals there is a variety of ecosystems and each ecosystem is
The ecosystem I have chosen is tropical rainforest. In the following paragraphs, I am going to firstly introduced the structure of tropical rainforest in brief, with the second part of the plant ecology and last the diversity within this ecosystem.
C. Types of Organisms- Small animals, including monkeys, birds, snakes, frogs, and lizards are common in the tropical rainforest
While reading Michelle Gardner-Quinn’s essay about reverence for all life I was truly touched. I found this essay to be vastly eye-opening and incredibly inspiring. When considering which biome is my personal favorite, I come to the conclusion that the tropical rainforest touches my heart. I have had the opportunity to see the beautiful tropical rainforest, and it is an experience I will never forget. Some may say that the tropical rainforest only has humidity, but that is so far from the truth. The tropical rainforest is a biome filled with magnificent plants and animals. It is even said the tropical rainforest biome houses half of the earth’s population of plants and animals. This statement to me relates back to Michelle’s statement about
One way that the environment impacts the animals is that the animals such as bears adapt and store their energy in the winter. This is also known as hibernating. “Animals in the mountains have also adapted to save energy during the harsh winter months.” (Cassandra Maier, Adaptations of plants and animals to mountains) When animals hibernate, they are less active during the winter, and they just sleep for most of the day. Other animals such as the goat and deer do not hibernate during the winter,
The Yasuni National Park possesses very diverse rainforest which significantly impact how the ecosystem functions; yet the the processes of disturbance and succession greatly affect them ("Yasuni National Park, Ecuador", "Ecuador Yasuni ITT Trust Fund" ). Just one hectare of the park contains more species of trees and bushes than all of North America ("Foreseeable Impacts of Oil Industry Activity in Yasuní")! There are a staggering 1762 species of trees and shrubs that have been identified in Yasuni, and approximately 400 of them are inherent to the region (“Foreseeable”). Hundreds of the plants in the previously untouchable zones have not even been classified or studied in depth (“Foreseeable”). The park is also paradise to a multitude of animal...
The sloth population in South America is being decimated by deforestation. If the deforestation is not stopped sloths will lose their habitat and become extinct. Deforestation, if not controlled, will destroy not only sloths but countless other unique species indigenous to the South American rainforests. If the current rate of deforestation continues the worlds rainforests will be completely destroyed in one hundred years. The problem of deforestation needs to be addressed now in order to preserve the worlds rainforests. Steps must be taken in order to insure the survival of the worlds rainforests and preservation of the Earth's bio-diversity.
Tropical rainforests which is located between tropic of Capricorn and tropic of Cancer covered 12% of land surface few thousand years ago. However, today they o...
The Human Impact on Rainforests Human Impact on Rainforest is it a necessity? Rainforest are the beautiful gift of Mother Nature. It consists of the most magnificent species and plants in the world. 4.2% of the world’s animals live in the rainforest. This statistic it self shows how bad it would be to destroy such essential part of the worlds biodiversity.
Simply speaking, rainforests are basically the foundation of the earth. The most important role that rainforests play is ‘the lungs of the earth’. This is extremely vital to the earth’s survival as the trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide which they use to help grow and let out oxygen which we need to live. This system is known as the carbon-oxygen cycle and with numbers of rainforests declining, it is highly threatened. The largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon, alone is known to produce half of the world’s oxygen. A break down in the carbon-oxygen cycle means that we will not only have less oxygen, but an increase in carbon dioxide which eventually leads to global warming. This occurs as carbon dioxide traps heat which actually keeps the earth warm, with the right amount of carbon dioxide that is. This is called the greenhouse effect and occurs naturally however due to decreasing number of trees, there is more carbon dioxide than needed which traps extra heat making the earth hotter than needed, this is known as global warming which also causes a rise in sea level.
Tropical rainforests have many species of plants and animals. They are very interesting and many scientists today study it. Rainforests are an important part of our environment and it is important for us to protect it. That’s why we have to stop global warming.
Tropical rain forests and temperate forests are two different types of forests. They differ in density, diversity of species, regions, altitudes and their usefulness to humans. This usefulness is referred to as values. The values obtained from forests are aesthetics, scientific and educational purposes. In addition forests have the ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide released into the air from man’s endeavours. This CO2 contributes to the sudden increase in global warming. The total value of a forest ecosystem is the combined value of each individual species living within that habitat.