Tropical Rainforest
Abbey Galloway
Where?
The Tropical Rain forest biome is located in Central and South America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Australia. It is found in most equatorial areas. We are specifically looking at the Tropical Rain Forest of the Amazon in South America.
What?
- A tropical rainforest has four distinct layers: the emergent layer, the canopy, the understorey and the forest floor.
- The rivers and streams in a rainforest can also be considered one of the structural features.
- The climate of a rainforest is one of its main features. This climate includes the rain, humidity and temperature.
- A rainforest does not have seasons as we know them, it only has a wet season and a dry season.
- A tropical rainforest is evergreen, which means that the leaves on the trees never fall off.
EMERGENT LAYER
The tallest trees are the emergents, towering as much as 200 feet above the forest floor with trunks that measure up to 16 feet around. Most of these trees are broad-leaved, hardwood evergreens. Sunlight is plentiful up here. Animals found are eagles, monkeys, bats and butterflies.
CANOPY LAYER
This is the primary layer of the forest and forms a roof over the two remaining layers. Most canopy trees have smooth, oval leaves that come to a point. It's a maze of leaves and branches. Many animals live in this area since food is abundant. Those animals include: snakes, toucans and treefrogs.
UNDERSTORY LAYER
Little sunshine reaches this area so the plants have to grow larger leaves to reach the sunlight. The plants in this area seldom grow to 12 feet. Many animals live here including jaguars, red-eyed tree frogs and leopards. There is a large concentration of insects here.
FOREST FLOOR
It's very dark down here. Almost no plants grow in this area, as a result. Since hardly any sun reaches the forest floor things begin to decay quickly. A leaf that might take one year to decompose in a regular climate will disappear in 6 weeks. Giant anteaters live in this layer.
Climate?
In an average year in a tropical rain forest, the climate is very humid because of all the rainfall, which amounts to about 250 cm per year. The rain forest has lots of rain because it is very hot and wet.
The temperature in a rain forest rarely gets higher than 93 °F (34 °C) or drops below 68 °F (20 °C); average humidity is between 77 and 88%
There are no true seasons in a tropical rainforest, although some might see a rainy season and a 'dry season,' but the rainfall does not cease long enough for leaves to dry out.