The Tropical Rainforest

TROPICAL RAIN FOREST

SCI/230

July , 2012

A tropical rain forest is warm all year-round and it usually gets about 50 to 260 inches of rain per year on the average. ( www.blueplanetbiomes.org) Scientists estimate that more than half of the world’s plants and animals live in some type of rain forest. Tropical rain forests also produce 40% of the earth’s oxygen. The American, the African, and the Asian are the three largest rainforest but each has different groups of plants and species in them.

The trees in the rainforest have four layers which are very distinct. The tallest of them are the emergent trees which stand 100 to 240 feet tall. These trees grow to the top of the rainforest with a canopy type of umbrella top. These trees are amazingly tall and the bottoms can spread about 30 feet wide to be able to support themselves. Under these trees are the upper canopy trees which stand 60 to 130 feet tall. It is easy to see why the rain forest below does not get much light. The lower canopy consists of trees about 60 feet tall. There is little air movement and humidity stays high. The last layer is the forest floor which is completely shaded makes it hard for bushes and herbs to grow there. But the floor has lots of termites, fungi, and earthworms which help the forest breakdown litter.

Rainforest plants have had to adapt to their environment because of the rain it reaches each year. The way some adapt to so much rain is they have drip tips or grooved leaves; some even produce oily coats on their leaves so the water runs off. There are over 2,500 species of vines that grow in the rainforest. In order for these vines to get any sunlight they attach to the trees and grow towards the canopy. The thing that interested me most was that there is no dominant species in the rainforest. The bio diversity of these plants and species prevents them from dying off from diseases