Tropical Moist Forest
By: Candy Santiago
Description
The Tropical Moist Forest is also known as Tropical Rainforest. This biome is hot and moist all year around. It is estimated that it gets between 50 - 120 inches of rain per year. The temperatures in this biome can go from 20°C ( 68°F) - 34°C (93°F).
Location
Most of the Tropical Moist Forests in the world are located in places like South America, Africa, and South Asia.
Animals and Plants
The climate in the Tropical Moist Forest makes it the perfect home for millions different species of plants and animals.
Layers
This Tropical Moist forest is divided into layers of trees. There are four layers of trees in a tropical Moist Forest. These layers are the emergent, upper canopy, understory, and forest floor.
- Emergent: Trees are spaced wide apart, and are 100 to 240 feet tall with umbrella-shaped canopies that grow above the forest.
- upper canopy: 60 to 130 foot trees allow light to be easily available at the top of this layer, but reduced any light below it. Most of the rainforest's animals live in the upper canopy. There is so much food available at this level that some animals never go down to the forest floor.
- understory: 60 foot trees. This layer is made up of the trunks of canopy trees, shrubs, plants and small trees.
- forest floor: It is usually completely shaded. Most areas of the forest floor receive so little light that few bushes or herbs can grow there.
Tropical Rainforest Biome