The tropical rainforest biome is located within the latitudes of 28 degrees north or south of the equator between the tropic of cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. It has a very high average temperature and a significant amount of precipitation. The average temperature exceeds 18 degrees celcius and the average rainfall lies between 175-200cm. The tropical rainforest is made up of four different layers. Starting with the forest floor at the bottom which receives only 2% of sunlight . The next layer is called the understory and it receives only 5% of sunlight where plants only grow up to 3m. Next it is the canopy layer which is the main layer that forms a roof over the rest of the forest. The last layer is the emergent layer which has a few small number of very large trees at the height of 45-55m. The tropical rainforest is home to half of all living plant and animal species on the planet. In 1 hectare it may contain 42,000 different species of insects, 313 different kinds of trees and 1,500 species of higher plants. Animals The tropical rainforest is home to many different kinds of animals that all have different way of adapting to their environment. Chimpanzees have thumbs, long arms, flexible shoulders, elbows, and wrist joints that allow them to easily climb and swing through trees. They have large ears that can hear distant sounds and figure out where it is coming from to warn them of approaching predators. Their thick, long, black hair shields them from bites of insects and rain. They have very long teeth that they use to scare away enemies but very rarely use them to eat. Elephants have large ears that they can flap back and forth like a fan to cool themselves off. Their trunks help them to reach the ground and up high to get plants. They also use their trunks to spray water and dust on their body's to prevent sunburns. Their large molars are used for chewing and grinding tough plants. Elephants are able to make very low pitched sounds called infrasounds to help them communicate sounds below the human range. Plants The tropical rainforest has 2/3 of all flowering plants found in forests. Just like the animals, plants also have many different ways to adapt to their environment. The Brazil nut tree is the tallest tree in the rainforest this allows it to keep all of its nuts because no rodents will take the effort to climb up it. Their nuts are hidden in baseball size fruits that's woody exterior is impossible to break through except for only one kind of rodent that can break through. Their fruit falls as soon as it ripens so it doesn't make the top of the tree heavy. The fan palm has very large fan shaped leave which are good for catching sunlight and water. They have segmented leaves which allow extra water to drain off of their leaves. The fan palm is very slow growing allowing it to not need as much nutrients which is good because the soil isn't very rich with nutrients. It grows up to 20 meters high so it can get sunlight above the canopy. |