Rainforest: Biome

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RAINFOREST
BIOME
Tropical rainforest are characterized for hosting vast amounts of biodiversity. They are
warm and wet, creating various types of canopy for its vegetation. Also, the litter in the
soil and the humid conditions create a layer of nutrients on the soil of low quality, which
allows the growth of a wide variety of vegetation.
They are located in the tropical regions of our planet, mainly found in the southern region
of Central America, Southeastern of Mexico, Equatorial South America, some of the east
coast of Brazil, Equatorial Africa, Madagascar, Western of India, Southeast Asia,
Northeastern Australia and the Pacific Islands.
As said before, Tropical rainforests are warm and humid, where the temperature ranges
from 21 to 30 degrees Celsius (70 to 85°F). This doesn’t have such minor change through
the seasons, which allows a lot of organisms to do really well in the biome, without the
need to migrate or hibernate at any time of year.
In the tropical Rainforests there must be at least 1750-2000 mm (69-78 inches) of rain per
year, where this rain must be distributed throughout the year, also being important
because different biomes receive high quantities of rain, but only for a short period of
time in the year. Rainforests are also humid, where there is a lot of humidity in around the
80%. This humidity is caused by the high precipitation, the huge biomass of plants, and the
heat, because of evapotranspiration, which is the combined evaporation of water to gas
and transpiration.
rainforests contain some of the most nutrient-poor soils that are characterized to have
little nutrients. This happens because the rain flow washes many of the nutrients away,
while at the same time the nutrients that reach the soil are quickly taken up by the plant
life, where also the nutrients are decomposed too by the heat, moisture, and
decomposing organisms such as the insects, then the plants use those nutrients as quickly
as they can, leaving very little nutrients in the soil.
Something that is also characterized of the tropical rainforest is that there is always
consistent and direct sunlight in all the year, where plants have a good access to light
unlike many biomes. Anyways, the trees that dominate the big part of the tropical
rainforests do not allow much of the light to reach further down in the forest. That’s why
we can find the layers in the tropical rainforest.
SUBTERRANEAN
This is the layer underneath the soil, but though rainforests are nutrient-poor they still
contain lots of life, like fungi and other different types of insects.
Plants
- Shrubs
- Herbs
- Vines
- The strangler
FOREST FLOOR
this is the base of the rainforest, where there is very little light, so there is not much plant
life here, but anyways a tree can fall and give a chance to other plants to grow in this new
found light.
Plants
- low lying plants such as ferns and ginger.
SHRUB LAYER
Here little light reaches this layer. This area contains a lot of different animals as well. For
example, many reptiles, like the Reticulated Python, many insectivorous birds like the
various species of babblers, and also a lots of insects.
Plants
- The shrub layer is mainly made out of bushes, and It contains most of the
rainforests orchids.
CANOPY
This is the part of the forest where the tops of most trees can be seen, where there is a
huge kind of leaves, flowers, and fruit, making this the most populated part of the forest,
where we can find monkeys, snakes, a lot of different species of birds, and others.
Plants
- Large evergreen trees
- Smaller orchids, bromeliads, and types of moss
EMERGENT LAYER
In this layer, the tallest trees stand out of the canopy, these are the biggest trees, reaching
heights over 60 meters (196 ft) tall. These trees have few branches and leaves but
anyways it spread out very widely, they also have a lot of flowers and fruits growing there.
This layer is less occupied than the canopy, but still full of a place for monkeys and
butterflies and the birds of prey.
Plants
- Emergent trees like the Kapok tree, Baliziaelegans, Dipteryxpanamensis,
Hieronymaalchorneoides, Hymenolobiummesoamericanum, Lecythisampla and
Terminaliaoblonga.
Small rainforest animals
 Monkeys
 Sloths
 Snakes
 Rodents
 Insects
 Frogs
 Birds
Mid- to large-size rainforest animals
 Tapir
 Rhinoceros
 Gorilla
 Leopards
There are more types of rainforests, like the Montane rainforests, the Mangrove forests,
the Monsoon forests and the temperate rainforests.
The tropical rainforests are really important for us, because they produce a great amount
of oxygen, storing carbon in all of its living plants, and in addition, many important
organisms that live in rainforests help us in our human systems. Anyways, the rainforests
are cut down for development and agriculture without replanting measures, threatening
the endangered species that live in these forests, also losing the benefits that the
rainforest provides us, where also the people living there must move to smaller areas or
also change their way of life. That is why we should help to conserve and rehabilitate the
rainforests that are so important for us and the well-being of the planet.

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Small rainforest animals

Mid- to large-size rainforest animals

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