Tropical Rainforest
Zachary, Hannah, A.J., Donovan
Adaptations for Animals
-Camouflage. For example, the sloth moves very slowly, causing blue-green algae to grow on it's fur, giving the sloth a greenish look to help it blend in.
-Living on a particular area to avoid competition for food and predators. An example is Spider monkeys that live in the upper canopy (tree top canopy) to avoid predators and experience little competition for food (the spider monkey's tail gives it the ability to swing from tree to tree, allowing it to live in the tree top canopy)
Adaptations for Plants
-Plants adapting to reach sunlight. As example, Liana plants. Lianas are woody climbing vines that drape rainforest trees. They keep their roots in the ground and climb high into the tree canopy to reach available sunlight. Most start in the rainforest canopy and send roots down to the ground.
-Widespread stilt roots. An example being the Mangrove tree. The Mangroves, as well as other trees have adapted to living in the wet marshy areas (such as tropical deltas) by having wide-spreading stilt roots that support the tree in the mud and trap nutritious organic matter.
Interesting Facts
Habitats
Amazon, Madeira, Mekong, Negro, and Congo are all lakes found in the tropical rain forest. They all support life for animals like fish, Newts, tadpoles, Earthworms, leeches, Snapping turtles, ducks, etc. These lake like areas all have a food chain within its self, where plants and animals all depend on each other to survive.
The Forest Floor is were less than 1% of the light strikes. The top of the soil is very thin and poor quality. A lot of litter falls to the ground where it is broken down by decomposes like termites, earthworms, and fungi.
The Understory is made up of shrubs, plants and small trees. Animals like spiders, bees, snakes, frogs, and jaguars live here. Plants like tree trunks, saplings, small ground plants, and vines all help the life of these animals.
Limiting Factors
Sunlight in the tropical rain forest is a limiting factor because sunlight manly hits only the first layer of the rain forest. Meaning some plants don't get the right amount of sunlight causing them to die off. Soil in the tropical rain forest is a limiting factor because it is not filled with too many nutrients, and because of this, plants sometimes don't get enough of it.
Food Chain
HERBIVORE- rhinoceros beetle - feeds off of coconut tree
SECONDARY CONSUMER- Red-Eyed tree frogs - feed off of rhinoceros beetle
TERTIARY CONSUMER- Jaguars - feeds on Red-Eyed tree frogs
Abiotic and Biotic Factors
The abiotic (non-living) factors in the tropical rainforest include but does not limit to water, rocks, sunlight and soil. Some of the biotic (living) factors are the jaguar, avocodo, rubber tree, and capuchu monkey.
Mutualistic relationship
The capuchin monkey and a flowering avocado tree, the monkey feeds on the flowers necter, the flower's pollen gets on the monkey's face. The pollen then gets transfered when the monkey goes and eats from another flower.
Commensalistic and parasitic relationship
New world army ants and the antbirds, the ants march causing bugs to fly into the air and then the antbirds eat them.
The phorid flies and the leaf cutter ants, the ants go and collect the leaves, the flies attack the ants and lay eggs int the ants head, when the eggs hatch the baby can get all the nutrients from the ant.
Average Temperature
It rarely gets higher than 93 degrees F (34 degrees C) and never lower than 68 degrees F (20 degrees C).