When threatened, they fall into the water below and escape. Chameleons lie motionless and wait for insects to come into reach. They often change color to blend in with their surroundings. Many of the plants people keep as houseplants originated in rain forests. These include bromeliads, African violets, periwinkle, anthurium, philodendron, and Christmas cactus. Bananas, avocados, pineapples, peppers, peanuts, oranges, lemons, papaya, pepper the spice , coconut, sugarcane, cassava, and cacao chocolate all grow in the rain forest.
Coffee beans, cashews, and Brazil nuts are also rain-forest products. About one-fourth of all medicines come from rain-forest plants. These include curare a tropical vine from which a surgical anesthetic is created , quinine a treatment for malaria , and rosy periwinkle from which a drug for lymphocytic leukemia is derived. One hundred years ago, rain forests covered a much greater area than they do now. Today trees are cut down and burned to create new farmland.
They are also cut for lumber and access to mineral resources. About 20 hectares 50 acres of rain forest is destroyed every minute, somewhere in the world. If the destruction continues, tropical rain forests may be wiped out during the 21st century. Eighty percent of the life-forms in tropical rain-forests have not been named or scientifically identified.
Some live only in very small and remote areas and may be important sources of drugs or other medical uses. The fear is that species are disappearing with rain forests before they are discovered and scientifically described. Some species may be lost to human greed.
Animals such as jaguars are hunted for their fur. Many animals are illegally captured and end up in the pet trade. Pet iguanas and parrots could be bred in captivity rather than removed from their native habitat.
Ecotourism has brought many people to view and experience the rain forest. As tropical rainforests are located on or close to the Equator , the climate is typically warm and wet. The high rainfall and year-round high temperatures are ideal conditions for vegetation growth. The wide range of plants encourages a huge variety of insects, birds and animals. Temperatures in the tropical rainforest are high throughout the year. The range is temperature throughout the year is low. Rainfall levels are high, typically over mm per year.
Some vines, called lianas, are sometimes as big around as a person! They climb the trees in the canopy to reach for sunlight.
The next layer, the understory, is a dark, cool area below the canopy, but above the ground. The understory is shaded from much of the sunlight by the canopy. The forest floor is the bottom layer of the rainforest. This is the area where fallen, decomposing plants and trees lay on the ground. Many insects live here. Temperate rainforests have all of these zones except the emergent layer. The tallest trees in the temperate rainforest canopy grow to be about feet 90 meters tall.
Scientists believe that there is such a great diversity of animals in tropical rainforests because they are one of the oldest ecosystems on earth.
Some forests in Southeast Asia have been around for at least million years, ever since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Animals in the tropical rainforest are specially adapted to live in this unique environment. A common characteristic found among mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, is an adaptation to living in trees.
One example is New World monkeys that have prehensile tails that curl around branches allowing the monkey to hold onto the tree with its tail! Other animals are brightly colored, sharply patterned, have loud vocalizations, and like to eat lots of fruit. Most of the animals in the tropical rainforest live in the canopy. There is so much food available up there that some animals never go down to explore the forest floor!
Birds are important to rainforests because they like to eat seeds and fruit. Their droppings grow into new plants and help rainforests to survive. In turn, tropical rainforests are important to birds because they provide winter grounds as migratory destination. Parrots are not the only type of birds you will see in the rainforest.
Insects make up the largest single group of animals that live in tropical forests. Equatorial Climate The equatorial rainforest supports the greatest biodiversity number and types of living organisms in an area on Earth. Temperatures are lower at night.
Plants — epiphytes — plants living in tree crowns for light. Animals — birds and insects. Conditions — trees compete for light, nearly all rain intercepted. Plants — dense, unbroken layer of tree crowns. Animals — animals living here rarely visit the floor.
Plants — lianas climbing in a bid to reach sunlight. Animals — animals living here visit the floor. Animals — decomposers populate this area. Search for:.
0コメント